family – Papi Preschool

Part 2 Cont…

MOVE TO TEXAS?! Wait, what? How would we go from moving to Puerto Rico to now possibly making Texas our home? I mean shit, this is the same state where my brother was murdered just two years earlier. Why in the hell would I want to go to Texas?

🤷🏻‍♂️?🤷🏻‍♂️?🤷🏻‍♂️?🤷🏻‍♂️?

Well, because maybe that’s where the Universe was calling us to be.

Moving to Puerto Rico seemed to be a dying idea. By this time we were opening up our minds to many different possibilities. We loved certain parts of Florida where we could be close to family in the north or south. We discussed Southern California where I had been offered a job 6 months earlier. And of course, we considered going back to the DC area.

It was late July and for basically the whole month we’d been blessed with the opportunity to house/dog sit for my wife’s good friend in the Frederick, MD area. We loved the change of pace and the fresh air up in Maryland farm country. The best part of the trip was snagging a deal on Groupon that took us to Adventure Park USA. This place rocks! Rollercoasters, water rides, arcade and food. We were straight chillin’. We were definitely enjoying our time in the first place our family called home that wasn’t our recently sold house.

The opportunity to save money from not having a mortgage anymore, but still being able to have a place to call home nearby, was just amazing. It gave us time to tie up loose ends and slowly say goodbye to friends and family.

It was just crazy to think about; less than a month earlier we were celebrating my wife’s 40th back in Rockville with neighbors, friends and extended family. Now, here we are, on the road, living in someone else’s house with no neighbors of our own and slowly coming to the realization: we are really leaving home.

It’s now July 15th and house sitting time was up. Let the family adventure continue! We wanted to kept things loose and had a few small local trips lined up until July 27th. That’s when we planned to attend my wife’s family reunion down in Fredericksburg, VA, perfectly located down I-95 South.

At one point we considered heading up north, the wrong direction, to visit very dear friends in Pittsburgh for the remainder of the time we had, but now, the extra travel was starting to seem like a horrible idea. It was slowly dawning on my wife and I (and probably my preteen) that this was about to be the longest trip of our lives. A minivan, one dog, three young kids, two crazy parents, 8 southern states in 10 days…we’re nuts!

You know, I now firmly believe what they say: “Man Plans, God Laughs.” This wasn’t a joking matter though. Just as we set out to visit nearby Downtown Frederick we got a call from a Pittsburgh number. Maybe it was our friends seeing if we were coming up? Nope.

We learned that my father-in-law, who happens to live 40 miles south of Pittsburgh, was starting to experience some issues with his heart. He had a scare and it was serious enough that my wife was alerted to what was happening. The thought of us moving away and something happening to him made the decision easy: we were definitely headed North to Pittsburgh!

This impromptu trip to Steeler country did us well, but for my wife’s father, it was everything. He was so energized by the presence of the kids! We gave him shit for still smoking here and there but did our best to let him know how much we cared for him. How much we would miss him. How much we loved him. And he most certainly received the message.

Our visit, and the doctors, had Grandpa ready for the big family reunion. We found time to go see our friends in Pittsburgh Proper and had a blast, even with the news of what was going down in Puerto Rico. To keep our minds off of some serious decisions we knew we would soon have to face, we took a trip to a zoo on the Ohio border that was phenomenal! Camel ride was definitely the highlight!

After almost two weeks up north, it was time to head south. Fredericksburg, here come The Santiagos for the Dwyer family reunion! Wait, how long are we driving?! We stopped in Rockville one more time to pick up a few items and that stop would officially be the last time we’d all be together in our hometown, as a family. Felt like sad times but I knew there were many good times ahead. At least that was the plan.