Why I miss Mobile

In a few months my brother, his wife and their twin daughters will be packing up their house in Utah and transporting everything to the great state of Alabama where my brother will be training to be a blackhawk helicopter pilot at Ft. Rucker. Christina is a bit apprehensive. I know her feelings. It's hard to uproot your family and move halfway across the country to an unknown land where you don't know anybody and everything is SO different from where you moved from. Nine years ago I was facing a similar dilemma. Uprooting my small family in Utah, loading a Uhaul and moving to Alabama. We moved there in May and I remember getting there, feeling the sweat roll down my back (the humidity is something else) and wondering what in the world had I done? Then to top it off, a week after arriving I found out I was pregnant. I remember not understanding a word people said. I remember being frustrated by the way people drove (very, very slow compared to the Wasatch Front) and I remember the heat! BUT, it all turned around when I got out and met my neighbors and people from church. I fell in love with Alabama. I loved, loved, loved being within an hour of the beach. I loved the people. I loved the green. I loved that you drove down the street and didn't know there was a city on the other side of the road because there were so many trees. I loved that trees would grow over the streets. I loved the colonial houses. I loved the history. I loved (and still love) the friends I made. I loved that I lived in a complex that had four pools. I loved that the YMCA was across the street and I had two hours of babysitting while I worked out. I want my brother and sister-in-law to know that Alabama is a great place to be. I cried and cried when we drove away, knowing the chances were very slim that we'd ever live there again. It was a wonderful experience for me. I grew so much when I lived there. I discovered so many things about myself that I would have never known had I stayed by my family or in Utah. I am jealous that they will be there but rest assured we will be visiting. So Christina, get your beach bags ready!