Hooray for One Year as Georgians!

I thought I would write the story of August 8, 2006. One year ago today we moved to Georgia. Eddie was two days past his one-month-old mark. We had spent the previous night at my mom's house, as all our stuff was already packed up. We got up and said quick goodbyes to my family. Then Mark, my big brother, drove us to the airport.

Okay, so I was a new mom. I had never taken Eddie anywhere besides my mom's a couple of times, Ben's mom's once, and church once (oh, and the doctor's office). I was so nervous to breastfeed him in public. For those of you who don't know, the blanket thing doesn't work too well, especially in the beginning when breastfeeding is hard for the baby and the mom (it also doesn't work later, but that is a whole different post). Right before we boarded the plane, Eddie started crying because he wanted to eat. I didn't want to feed him in the waiting area. So we got on the plane with a screaming baby.

The airplane rides actually went pretty well. Ben held the blanket while Eddie breastfed. Besides eating, Eddie slept. He slept so well, in fact, that I got uncomfortable holding so still for so long. He only fussed once, and it wasn't anything. But I worried the whole time, and I felt tired by the time we arrived in Atlanta.

I had the heaviest feeling in my stomach and throat when we got off the plane. I couldn't believe that this strange place was "home". I was already set to not like Georgia, and I was tired and emotional. I started bawling. Loud, heavy sobs. I couldn't stop. I just sat in the airport bawling with everyone looking at me.

We went outside to catch the shuttle to take us to the car rental place. It was hot and humid, and we had a lot of luggage with us. We waited for the shuttle for at least a half an hour.

The car rental place didn't have a long line, and yet it took more than an hour from when we got in the line until we were handed the keys to our car. The Nancy Grace "news" show was on. I had never seen it before. I assumed it was the local news and felt upset by the negativity. Eddie cried almost the whole time we were there. People there were commenting on his crying, and I felt uncomfortable that everyone was frustrated by him.

We drove to the hotel (we had no idea where we were going to live yet) without any problem. We were starving, so we had a pizza delivered. We ate and went to bed. Eddie wasn't so compliant. It took him a couple hours to fall asleep. Right after he settled in and I finally fell asleep, there was a loud, hard knock on the door. It was 1 a.m. We knew we were in a seedier part of town, and some scary looking people were hanging out outside the hotel. The knock freaked us out. I picked up Eddie and ran to the bathroom with the cell phone. Ben went to the door. No one ended up being there. We figure whoever it was must have realized he had gone to the wrong room. We were still scared to go back to sleep, though.

I think back on that day and can't imagine how we were brave enough to make such a big change. I look around at our home and our little family and think about all the things that have happened in our lives since we moved here, and I feel so happy and blessed. But I am glad today is August 8, 2007, instead of 2006.