Contentment

It happens every year about this time.   The temperatures start rising and I start wanting to move.  I hate the heat.  Like, completely utterly totally despise it.  Don't get me wrong.  I love to sweat, if it serves a purpose, like when I exercise.  But man!  Sweating just when I walk outside is wrong.  W.R.O.N.G.   I like make-up and fixing my hair.  Ummm...sweat messes that up : )  Just kidding I'm not really that vain; well, maybe a little.

The problem is that I know exactly where I want to move.

Seattle, Washington.  I love it.  I've been in love with Seattle since I first went there on a mission trip in college.  It was beautiful and the people were great.  It's a lot like Austin, but pretty and without the heat.    Don't beat me up!  Austin is pretty too, but Seattle is breathtaking. 

Little did I know that years later I would meet my husband and his brother would live in Seattle, so I would have another tie to this wonderful place.  Now we get to visit, but I cry every time we come back home.  I desperately want to stay.

The boys love it too.  They love their Uncle Joel, Aunt Christy, and cousin Alayna.  We would all love to live near to them.
I have dreams of living there and being able to play outside in the summer instead of being stuck in the house because you might get heat stroke if you go outside, being able to grow a real garden because the heat isn't going to kill it all, spending our weekends visiting beautiful places, hanging out with Jerad's family.

Here's the deal though, if we lived there we wouldn't spend every weekend at places like this...

We would have obligations in Seattle just like we have obligations in Austin that keep us busy.

And yes the summers are amazing, but it gets COLD in the winter and I don't know how I do with the cold since I've always lived in the south.

The bigger problem is that all this longing to move keeps me from being content where I am.  God has placed me in Austin for a reason.  I've met some wonderful people that I will be friends with until I meet Jesus.  I'm involved in an amazing church that has helped grow my faith in ways I never thought possible.  My kids get to grow up surrounded by their grandparents.  There are wonderful things about living here and I forget about all those blessings when I allow myself to play in the sandbox of self pity.

If God chooses to move us to Seattle at some point then I am ready and willing to go, but until that happens I need to be thankful for the life he has given us here because that life is pretty great.  In spite of the killer heat.