Moving Half Way Across the US

In 2015 my family and I took a long vacation to Florida. We spent 2 weeks there. We stayed in a rental home for a week and then moved to a condo for the other week to be near Orlando. We used VRBO.com to book both of our stays. We enjoyed the beach, Disney, feeding Lemurs and more beach. After we returned home my husband and I both knew we wanted to some day live in Florida.

They were so little….

We knew at that time it wasn’t feasible for us to move when the mental health of our oldest son was increasing in intensity. We decided we would eventually get there but needed more time. This gave us plenty of time to research where we wanted to live. Our main deciding factor would be the school districts and crime rates. We would have four kids in school and wanted to try our best to find a good school for them.

We did hours of research online and once we found an area we liked, I used greatschools.org to see what the educational ratings of the district was for the areas we were considering. I also used city-data.com to look up crime rates, population, schools and other useful information to determine if the area we were considering looked safe. In each of these websites you just type in the city or school name and hit enter to get the statistics they have collected. Now I know that neither of these sites are foolproof web statistics but it was a good place to start. 

We continued to search for areas to live that were in our price range and then again looked at the school districts. We also used Google Earth to “walk” around the neighborhood. We joined Facebook pages of the schools and communities we were considering. We then looked for available jobs in the area to see what our options would be. I wrote down so much information, anything I felt would be beneficial for us to know when it came time to make a final decision. 

Fast forward a few years and we set a tentative date to move, as soon as our oldest son graduated high school. We wanted to stay local where we had family support and knew of all the mental health resources needed for our son. Well he didn’t graduate as planned but he was out of our home so we moved forward and began searching for available places to live. Our plan was not to leave our son behind but at this point he has established a new community and school as he works to graduate. We made a quick trip to Florida over spring break to look at the areas more closely. We spent several days driving around looking at communities and schools. We visited several cities and finally narrowed it down to a couple places.

Although my kids knew the plan of moving as it got closer they were not excited about leaving their very small town school, friends and family. They had all made really good friends and hated the fact of starting over. I am hopeful that we have set good morals in them and they will choose their friends carefully. We talk openly about topics that they might be exposed to in hopes that they make wise decisions as they make new friends. Their new schools are much larger than their previous school so it will be a challenge for them to decide where they fit in but I have no doubt they will figure it out. 

We finally set a date to move, rented the biggest U-Haul we could without having to have a CDL. We requested the help of family and friends and loaded our entire home into the U-Haul in about 7 hours. Several items did not fit into the U-Haul as it was crammed and so were our cars so luck fully I have a friend who was willing to take the remainder of the items to be donated. I am thankful for everyone who helped us and for my mom making us all supper!

After a long journey of waiting we are super excited to be living in Florida! Our journey, family time and travels will continue and we will enjoy some shorter trips that we can experience right here in Florida!

Enjoy the Journey,

J