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<\/a><\/p>\nI stood one morning early last month, with my feet in the ocean, my pant legs already heavy with the weight of salt water. Unlike most mornings, I hoped no one would stop to chat, and that I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see anyone I knew. Because in that moment, by my own choosing no less, I had been reduced to a girl with tears pouring in torrents down her face. I shook with the force of them.<\/p>\n
I was sobbing.<\/p>\n
It was my last morning to wake up in my own bed, in my own home, on the island I had fallen in love with and chosen to love. It was my last morning to call all of this home.<\/p>\n
It was no small thing.<\/p>\n
Where we have lived, I will forever be convinced, is one of the best places on earth to live. It is a great place to grow up, to raise a family, to grow old. And we love it dearly.<\/p>\n
But sometimes, when you have small people in your care, you have to make decisions that will affect their future. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not easy decisions to make, as many of you know. And while our island has been a wonderful place for our family, with great neighbors, schools, churches, beaches, opportunities, you name it, we had to make a determination based on what we believe is best for our particular small people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s individual needs. In our case, the best choice for them was extremely difficult to discern.<\/p>\n
But, after months (and really years) of wrestling with this, we have opted to move.<\/p>\n
And as wonderful as it was to open up a map of the world and choose this tiny little place to live, it makes it that much more painful, this decision to leave.<\/p>\n
But don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cry for me, Argentina, for two reasons.<\/p>\n
For one thing, I will never forget, for one fraction of one second, how fortunate I am to have lived here, even if this moment right now meant giving it up and walking away to a life filled with drudgery, lived out in a dirt pit, with large greenish-colored bugs and an even larger unidentifiable stench, all located in a land with no chocolate. I am a woman blessed. My life has been filled with an entirely undeserved grace.<\/p>\n
But (and this is the second reason) the place I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m moving to has its own merits.<\/p>\n
One of its merits is the fact that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also in Carolina.<\/p>\n
Another merit is the fact that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also an island.<\/p>\n
I know. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m completely obnoxious. Really, someone should do something about this.<\/p>\n
At any rate, this new island will be different. Despite the similarities I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure off-islanders see between the Carolina islands, each island has its own flavor. Plus, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be negotiating new schools, new neighborhoods, new everything really, all without any sort of network of friends and family to assist.<\/p>\n
In all likelihood, the new island will have wonders all its own. And, while I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see the ocean from my new house, I can walk to it. Plus, it definitely feels islandish there, with its plethora of palm trees and sandy beaches, and that fresh Carolina ocean air.<\/p>\n
And, I have a view.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Yeah, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kinda like that.<\/p>\n