A decision to move...

My husband always talked about Kansas. His family was from there and he had shared many stories and memories of visiting as a child.

My company made bad decisions and dropped from the market leader to a big "fail". I was layed off.... marketing always seems to go first. I left with a nice package and decided to stay home with my kids for a little while.

I continued to think about Kansas. I wanted away from the city and all the people and cars and pollution. I wanted that beautiful and peaceful country lifestyle for my family. That's where I wanted to be, somewhere out in the country in a huge farmhouse on some land with a porch swing and pond and lots of farm animals running around.... away from where I was, away from the sadness that had moved into the place I grew up.

We started looking at real estate through the internet and came across a 1900 farmhouse on 30 acres with an established greenhouse/nursery business on it. I loved the idea of growing and selling plants. I also loved that I would no longer have to commute an hour on the horrible freeways in CA - my new job was right in my own backyard! Within 6 months, we sold our 1st house together and drove in U-hauls to our new farmhouse in Osawatomie, KS.

We drove away from it all... our childhood memories, the streets and neighborhoods we grew up on, away from our family and friends... our roots. 

I wasn't scared... I knew I had to get away and start over somewhere fresh.

Kansas was everything Andy said it was. Our town consisted of about 3,000 people. The main town was very small, the houses were old and people were friendly and waved when you saw them. The air was clean, the weather was hot and humid, but the evenings were warm and full of lots of singing bugs. Business was fun and challenging and my boys grew up with lots of farm animals. They were dirty, happy little guys playing out in the country where life was safe and peaceful.

We started to heal a little bit. Most likely from the amount of chores that come from that amount of land and working in the greenhouse 12-13 hours a day. 

I found out I was pregnant again.

I was excited and honestly didn't worry about having any problems with this pregnancy. The doctor did say "it would never happen again". 

We had decided to move again. I had grown tired of the hours I had to spend in the greenhouse and had started to homeschool my boys. The business was a favorite to the town locals and I couldn't live in the house and close the business.

Long story short, we were a bit tired of the extreme weather, ticks, chiggers and monster spiders they called "wolfs".

We moved to Idaho when I was 3 months pregnant. I decided after meeting several awesome people here to have my baby at home with a midwife. I did not have an ultrasound during this pregnancy and didn't know the sex of the baby.

Emma Zelene...

On November 20, 2003 this beautiful, amazing, perfect and healthy little girl blessed our lives.