A year...

On June 2nd we reached our year mark of living here. In a lot of ways this has been the LONGEST year of my life, and then in other ways it has gone by so quickly. Those closest to me know that this move has been extremely hard on me. I have missed our life in Billings so much. I miss everything about it. I miss the mall, target, Taco Bell, finding great sales, and Costco just to name a few. The things I miss the most are my wonderful forever friends that I made there,  and our wonderful ward at church. I have always said this, but I have never been in a ward like the one we were in there. It was truly a ward family. I miss going to the temple every month. Justin and I went back in January, and I was so emotional that I couldn't stop crying. I ran into a dear friend while we were there, and I just melting into her arms crying. She probably thought I was a crazy person! A lot of times this year I would find myself driving around or sitting at home, and I would just start crying because I miss Billings so much. Justin and I would talk a lot about how we needed to unpack our bags and make this home, but I have just found that so extremely hard to do. For a lot of reasons this just doesn't feel like home to me. Even a year later I find myself feeling like a stranger in my own home. Sometimes I drive around town, and I feel like I am just visiting. I hope with time it will get easier, but I am not sure that I will ever love this place. I am extremely grateful for the opportunities this place has afforded us. A lot has changed in our little family since moving here as well. We spend more time together as a family. We make sure we do Family Home Evening every Monday, we read our scriptures together. These are all things we did very sporadically before, but I feel like I would not have survived if we didn't do them.Work has been good for Justin, and moving here gave us the opportunity to buy our first home. We live in a nice little neighborhood, and the girls can run around the neighborhood all they want. We have been blessed with wonderful neighbors, and we have made some great friends that we are so grateful for. You can see the church right out our back door,and we love walking to church. Everything about living here feels like a first for us, and we are just trying to find our new normal here. We are all adjusting to our life, and where we are. We are trying to find the good in all of it as we realize that this is where we are suppose to be.