Gathering of good friends

Tonight we celebrated the visit of dear friends, Matt & Janice, with more of our local friends. Matt & Janice moved away to The Netherlands about 6 months ago for a new job for Matt and we've missed them. It was lovely to see them tonight and to just be able to hang out!

On the way over to the party, G and I talked about whether or not we should break the news to our friends that we might be moving to FL. We really feel that we should tell them but in the end G wants to wait until he knows for certain that he's taking the Director of Engineer position. He won't know that for certain until he goes out next week for an in-person interview with his potential boss. Besides, it's only right that we share this news with our family first, and then our friends.

G is flying out to Venice, FL next Thursday and will stay through Sunday. If it goes well and he feels confident enough about working for the company, we'll share the news with family and friends shortly after he returns from FL.

Tonight was bittersweet, hanging out with dear friends that we've known for over 10 years, but wondering if we won't have this luxury for much longer. We love these people and the thought of leaving them behind and not seeing them often after we leave fills both G and I with sorrow.

These friends are unique and quite special to us. Sure, we'll remain friends even if we move out of state (thanks to modern technology we'll share pictures on Facebook and blogs, and chat on Skype or iChat), but it won't be the same. We won't be able to call and arrange play dates for the kids and for us adults. We won't be able to go camping with them, or have them over for an informal BBQ/pool party. We won't be able to watch our kids grow up together as we once thought we would.

So many of our dear friends have already left this city to pursue better job opportunities. Those of us remaining have felt the loss and I suspect our friends that have gone are feeling it too.

Sure, we'll possibly be moving on to a new and exciting challenge and living near the ocean will be very nice. But we'll have to leave so many good people and good things behind here and that's not going to be easy. In fact, it will be quite difficult.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that G might be moving out of state in 3 weeks and that the kids and I will join him about 2 months later, depending on how long C's adoption takes to finalize!