In my last post I talked about making the big decision to move and all of the thought that went into it. Today I want to discuss the transitioning from one home to another.

Shortly after my husband was made a job offer for a new company, we decided to list our home for sale. The next month, my husband finished his old job and started his new one four days later. It was tough to say the least! At this point we decided he would go ahead of us and look for a rental house while I showed our house and continued packing.

We were lucky in that our housing market had started to shift in a positive direction and our home sold very quickly. It was surprising to all of us, realtors included, but we were glad things kept moving. My husband and I were both navigating hard paths at this point, him alone in a new city with a new job and me at home with two little ones, a full home to pack and clean and escrow to contend with. I took the kids to visit as much as I could and he came home on the weekends. It wasn’t easy we were both tired and emotional. Aware that little eyes were watching our every move and also feeling the emotion of change themselves, I tried to keep positive. Looking back on it I think these are the things that helped the most:

Make it an adventure!

I kept reiterating that we were on an adventure and my oldest daughter really liked the idea of us being “house hunters.” We watch that show with her sometimes, and it really helped this situation. We were doing a lot of traveling back and forth visiting their dad and making arrangements for our new life, and it was tough on the girls with lots of long car rides. There were a lot of hotel stays and I tried to be as positive about the situation as possible, acting like staying in a hotel was awesome. I pretended we were on vacation– different place, cool breakfast, vending machines, different TV, different bathtub etc. I felt it was good for them to feel like what we were doing was positive and special.

Visiting our new area and showing them perks

During our transitional period of the move, we took the girls to a lot of beaches, parks and restaurants in our new local area. Sometimes the girls and I would come and stay during the week with my husband and while he was at work we would spend the day at the beach and relax. It was a nice reprieve from all of the packing, organizing, travelling and escrow stress back at home.

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Saying goodbye and allowing them to grieve

The hardest part was saying goodbye and it actually really hitting them. Gemma is four and would ask me when we were going home after we’d moved, and sometimes she’d just be sad, miss her friends and say she missed her room. I could completely relate as I truly felt the exact same way. I wanted so badly to cheer her up and make everything whole in her life again, but I realized it would take time and I had to allow her that time. As the weeks went on we talked about our old house less and less, but about once a month she’ll still ask about our old place or why we moved.

Focusing on putting our new home together

I let the girls really be a part of unpacking and have choices on where stuff went. They set up quite a few of their toys outside and since the summer weather was nice, I let them just do their thing. They also really enjoyed playing in the empty boxes, which stuck around for months! I tried to get most of their world set up first so that they could get back into a nice routine and feel comfortable in their new home. We also had a ton of packed boxes left in the garage and every few days I would grab a few and let them help me go through them. They found a lot of treasures and old toys that became new again this way.

Leaning on family for support

Honestly, my family was a huge support during this time. There were moments when I was just flat out overwhelmed and would ask my mom to come over and help me sift through our packing and home projects, and to help me keep everything together for the girls. I think we can do a lot on our own, but through these life changes we need support in many different forms. My main advice would be don’t be afraid to ask friends and family for help when it’s your time of need.

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I know a few bees have been through a move. Any tips for helping the transition?