We’re leaving Milwaukee in 26 days(!). We’re excited to move but we’re also very sad because we have really enjoyed living here. I have a lot of good friends, a wonderful spiritual community, and other very meaningful connections here. One thing that’s been tough about the move is that we received the jobs in May, and we need to be in DE by the beginning of August. That means we have had about 2.5 months to get our house ready for sale (tons of renovations), pack, spend time with all of our friends that we’re leaving behind, and do lots of fun Milwaukee stuff.
And we need to do all of these things while working, fitting in ZZ’s school and PT, and finding a balance so that ZZ doesn’t get overstimulated. His life has been shaken up a lot over the past month. He started school part-time, and we’ve had to be out of the house a lot over the past three weeks because of all the home renovations being done. Plus, we’ve had two house showings for which we’ve had to leave. When we’re out, he often just wants to go home. he doesn’t even like being in the stroller of car for long periods of time. Yesterday, we pretty much stayed at home (Except for a short walk and a trip to the park) and socialized with no one. Today we’re seeing some friends in the afternoon. But we really have to work to keep the socializing spread out and to make sure that he has days of downtime. Adopted kids in particular are at risk for overstimulation and for getting distressed when there is too much change at once, and ZZ is certainly showing signs of this happening to him.
So here is a list of things we want to do before leaving Milwaukee:
1) See lots of friends.
2) See the local band Maritime perform (I’m hoping to do this next week).
3) Get to a few of our favorite restaurants.
4) Spend time as a family at the Milwaukee zoo and at the Children’s museum.
5) Go to the Milwaukee Art Museum to see the China/Forbidden City exhibit.
6) Go to the Dragon Boat races on the lake next month.
7) Go to Sangha every Sunday.
8) Get some biking in on the Oak Leaf Trail.
9) Go on a hike near some of the glacier trails.
10) Visit the dog park a few times with Molly.
11) Oh, and sell our house.
Yeah, the house thing could be a big stress for us. Everything on the Delaware end is going smoothly. We have a place to rent near campus, and we’re excited about that. But the housing market is very bad, and we don’t have much time to sell before we move. So we’ll see how this all works out.
