Chris and I made the choice for our family to live 20 long traffic filled 91 west bound miles away from the school our children attend. We are still unsure if this was the best choice for our family, but we justified it by the convenience of buying the house where I was raised. We were already comfortable there, our stuff was partially moved in, and the kids get to grow up surrounded by our huge family and literally sleep on top of their grandparents (my parents live downstairs, we live up stairs...see what I did there?). What we knew we were going to sacrifice was being a part of their school community. Week night events and school hosted outings are always a challenge and usually filled with lots of extra traffic. After school play dates are rare and breaking into the community of adults is almost impossible. We know that relationships take time and energy and honestly, a close proximity to each other.
But what we don't gain in quick access, we make up for in intention. We have to be intentional about the relationships we invest in, reaching out a little bit more than if we lived right down the street, we have to be intentional about the hours spent in the car every day, investing in audio books and podcasts or just plain 'ol "get to know you" conversations with our kids, we have to be intentional about how we spend our time getting ready in the morning, making sure every minute is a productive one to get out of the house on time. We made a choice, as a family, and with intention we will continue to make choices, but when we can work out a way for our kids to be a part of something along side their peers, you better bet a little bit of that intentional mindset is set aside and replaced with a "it's worth it".
