The first night in our new home was rough.

After a disastrous trip to Walmart where the Boyo kept trying to run away from us, and priming and redirection weren’t doing a damn thing to help either him or us, we went back to the apartment and cried and cried and cried.

It was official, we were homesick.

We knew we were doing the right thing. We knew we were where we were meant to be. But we missed our friends and families. We missed the stores we were used to (no way Boyo would have behaved like that at the Target in Brea). And we really missed the therapists who had become a part of our family over the years.

However, we also knew that our tears were pointless. There was no way we could go back – the house had sold and we couldn’t afford to buy a new one. Nor could we afford to rent anything anywhere in Southern California. The only thing we could keep doing was just keep plugging along.

It would get better, we said. We had been through tougher situations before and we had made it through just fine. We would make it through again.

So we dried our eyes and started making plans. We decided we would take the Boyo to a train museum. We would familiarize ourselves more with the area. We would figure out what towns we liked and start looking at homes. John would start applying for jobs. We would get Boyo started at school. We would adjust to our new normal.

God would get us through. He always did.

But in the back of our minds the homesickness still lingered. It was easy for me to shake – after all, I had the Boyo to distract me. It was harder for John because for the past two and a half years, his life had been get up, go to work, come home, sleep. He was not handling the idleness well. And since Boyo came to me for everything, and the cats spent their days hiding, all he really had was his cigarettes and his phone.

So we did a lot of driving that first week. We saw some awesome things – like the Tacoma Kids Museum, the Olympia Hands On Museum, and all the indoor play places. We visited friends and family in the area. We drove through Chehalis and Centralia, over to Shelton and Belfair, and then Aberdeen. We went into Tacoma so many times that I lost count. And then there was Puyallup and Yelm and Graham. (We’ve explored the area pretty thoroughly.)

John started getting job interviews. Our stuff finally showed up. Boyo started school at his new preschool. Family came to visit or started making plans to visit. We bought a lot of wooden trains and watched way too much Izzy’s Train Time on YouTube.

Gradually things did better. We still had our trials and tribulations. And tons of doubt from time to time. But life is good. John has a good job. Boyo loves his school. I’m getting caught up on writing and Etsy store stuff. We’ve settled in.

We’re finally happy.