Blog Challenge Day 24: A Difficult Time in My Life

This topic kept me awake last night, pondering what I would say.  I decided to share the difficulties I had when we moved from Broomfield to Montrose in June of 2006.  The next 6 months or so were some of the most difficult I have faced.  We made the decision to move because Michael had been offered what we THOUGHT was a better work opportunity at a car dealership here, and we decided the timing was right.  We'd lost his dad very unexpectedly in March of that year, and felt that we needed to live a little closer to his mom, who is alone in Silt, CO.  It was a difficult choice; we'd raised all the kids in Broomfield, where Mahan had become a name of legend (I may exaggerate, but not by much!), and I would be leaving the best friends I'd ever had.  We pulled poor Kelli away from the only home she'd known, away from a core of amazing and fun kids that had all grown up together, after her freshman year in high school!  Well, long story short (too late!), the job was not the better opportunity he'd hoped for, and we struggled financially and emotionally.  Well, I can't speak for Michael, but I sure did.  I did (and do!) love being closer to our parents, but those first few months I was homesick and stressed.  Even church didn't help, there were too many people who have grown up here, never left, and were very set in their ways.  I bided my time, hoping to find a 'kindred spirit' or two, but I really didn't.  My heart hurt at how Kelli struggled that first year, she was very lonely at school and at church, which is not something she or I was used to.  Add all that to bills that we struggled to pay, and it made for a very trying time.  The bright spot in all this was my new job...ironically, I have been the one who has been given the better opportunity for work.  Granted, my income is not one we could live on, but I've been able to bring home more than I ever did on the eastern slope.  Michael continues to work in the car business, for a different local dealership now, and we have cleared many financial hurdles in the years since.  But I find myself analyzing that time, wondering what I was supposed to learn from that trial, and hoping that I have come through it stronger and wiser!  The choices we make may not always reap the benefits we expect, but if we endure and focus on what we can do to improve, we will be better for the experience!