As the title of this post says, we did in fact move to Holden. It was a sudden decision. J.D. had a meeting with his employers about benefits, job pay increase, and mold issues. J.D. has been sick for quite some time and we never could quite figure out why he'd stay sick for so long and never could quite get over what he had. Sometimes it was worse than others, but it never let up. Dawson and I would get sick as well, and it would take a really long time to get over what we had, but it would go away and then 2 weeks later we'd be sick again. The last couple months none of us could actually get all the way over our illnesses. J.D. was the worst though. We soon found out (which was in December) that we had black mold growing everywhere in our apartment. We knew there was mold, but we didn't actually know how bad. We looked up symptoms of mold poisoning and sure enough, that's what J.D. had.
After talking to his employers, they didn't give us any reason of why we should stay working with them. When J.D. told them of the mold, they said we had to move and we had no choice. They were going to move us into another apartment, except that too had mold. They wanted us to move into the other apartment, fix our old one, and then move back into it. In our minds that seemed pretty ridiculous. So, not a day later J.D.'s brother Lucas found him a job on a dairy for a temporary time and his mom and dad said it was okay for us to move in with them as long as wanted. So Thursday afternoon we found this job, and we moved out Friday. We finished up some little moving things Saturday, but we were gone by 1.
It was so crazy how fast we moved. However, since then J.D. has been doing amazing! He doesn't wake up numb, all of his sores have gone away, he has tons of energy all the time, he is sleeping way better, and is breathing amazing! (He doesn't even snore at night anymore which is a huge bonus for me!) Dawson and I too feel tons better.
Dawson absolutely loves living in Holden. Anytime we've gone to Cedar for a day or 2 to get our truck he just cries because he wants to be back in Holden. He plays with his cousins all the time and has a huge house to run around in, animals to take care of and ride, friends all the time, family (which is his favorite) around all the time, and can run around outside anytime he wants. It's been so good for him. J.D. loves all the resources and being close to family as well. He is waiting to hear back on more permanent jobs and has many opportunities come up. I am adjusting slowly. I love living here, love being around family, love that I have so many things I can do with helping out, but it is kind of lonely. We don't have friends here which is the hardest part of the whole move. We miss our friends the Petersen's probably the most. The Lord definitely had a hand in leading them to move a door away from us. We had so much fun getting to know them and after Andee passed away, it was them that helped us see light and get through our days. There wasn't a moment that we didn't spend laughing with them. The laughter was medicine for us; it was exactly what we needed and still need. They were our family and we spent a lot of time hanging out and we have the best memories from being around them. Not seeing them or being able to hang out with them all the time has been so difficult and something we think about all the time. Dawson always called them his teachers and loved seeing them. He loved the fact that he could go knock on their door anytime he wanted and tell them all the things he did. We can't wait to see them again.
Also, I am further away from my family. That too has been an adjustment because I got so used to being able to run to St. George anytime I needed. My mom was living so close to me and that was really nice to be able to have someone to talk to who just listened. She never tried to fix me, she just let me talk.
I know moving to Holden has been an amazing choice, and we really do like it. We are going to have find some friends, but I think we are going to have to visit Cedar at least once a month to see our friends. :-)
