Change of plans

Since we decided to leave Hudson and start our adventure with traveling, we've learned so much. We've experienced so much... both very good things and very bad. We've both grown up a lot in the last 5 years since leaving our home in Ohio. We've lived in 4 different states, 7 different cities/towns, bought our first house, and we're now expecting our first baby! Somehow it seems like it had to have been a lot longer than 5 years, but it's only been 5. 

I'm so glad we decided to explore travel nursing. It gave us so many great opportunities to travel, see family, and experience new things that we may have never experienced otherwise. 

Throughout the entire experience, we noticed that it seemed to be getting more and more difficult. It started out as little things... travel jobs not being ideal, not loving where we were living, little hiccups with rentals... nothing huge and we always thought "no big deal, it'll get better as we go". It didn't... it seemed to be getting worse and worse with every move that we made. We just kept telling ourselves that it would get better. It had to, right? 

We had just moved to our last rental in East Greenwich, RI when everything fell apart in a rental/landlord nightmare. We had just moved in and had been living there for 2 weeks. We realized (on our own) that the house was unsafe for us to live in, and especially to bring a baby into. Mice and a roach infestation. It was a nice little secret that we found out on our own and was never mentioned by the landlords. It was the last straw and a complete nightmare. From there, the landlords showed their true colors. 

Sometimes... you just realize that it's time to stop fighting it and throw in the towel. It's not giving up, but sometimes it's just learning the really hard way that things are just not working out, no matter how badly you want them to. 

We wrapped and quarantined all of our things, left quite a few things in Rhode Island, stayed in a hotel that night, and left for Ohio the next day. 

Like I said, we learned so much and I'll keep it vague because honestly, I could write all day about all of the things that didn't work out and the things that did. I honestly don't wish to relive those last 2 weeks in Rhode Island by writing them here. Overall we're both really lucky to have had the experience and learned so much from it. Even if it was short-lived and even if things didn't end up the way we expected or wanted. 

We wanted so badly to live in a place where we love vacationing. Let me tell you one thing... if you can pull off living somewhere that you love vacationing to, that's awesome and more props to you! It sounds like a dream. But remember that you bring all of the daily stress, work, bills, and everything else with you to that vacation. It can be really great, but it's also very different than leaving all of that behind and just going on a vacation... and there's something to be said about that. 

So now... we're back in Ohio, 5 years later with a little baby on the way :)