Saturday, September 18, 2010

Changes are Coming!

Sorry, I'm not writing an exciting post about new allergen labeling regulation requirement changes or new policies mandating companies segregate their manufacturing processes for nut products or that there's been a huge change and a new trend is emerging and food allergies are on the decline.  Nope, nothing as exited as news of any of those changes would be, but changes are definitely coming for my family.  My husband has a wonderful new job, and we're moving.

After several weeks of keeping secrets, talking behind closed doors or in code, we finally broke the news to Abigail and now to our friends.  As sad as it's going to be to leave behind a house that has been our home for 12 years, a wonderful church, fabulous friends and neighbors, a nice community and great schools, we're looking forward to a new house, new opportunities, new adventures and a new town.  The move keeps us within our home state but puts us closer to both sets of parents/grandparents, closer to Duke and in a really nice region.

Actually, Abigail took it much better than I expected.  She's been asking to paint her room pink for a while now, and she'll be able to in the new house.  She also is envisioning a decor of peace signs, hearts and stars.  If that's all it takes, I'll happily accommodate!  It's going to be very hard to leave school mid-year, but I remind her repeatedly, that she's fabulous at making new friends, and that she's lucky because she'll have her friends here to e-mail and Skype and have a bunch of new friends there.  The move only takes us about an hour drive away from where we are now so visits aren't out of the question either.

What the move means for me, is that I'm busy every waking minute of the day.  We've accumulated a lot of stuff in the last 12 years of living in this house.  I'm in mass purge mode.  So, while taking large loads to Goodwill, I'm still packing up boxes to take to a storage unit in an effort to better "stage" the house....and be able to park a car in the garage!  Then there is the painting, cleaning, flooring, landscaping...ugh!!  It's all a bit much.  I'm anxious to get a "For Sale" sign up so we can start house shopping!  That's the exciting part for me.

Big changes are in store for us. While I can't quite report that yet in regards to food allergies, changes are in the works.  We've got to believe that doctors and scientist aren't too far away from determining why there is such an increase in the number of kids and even adults who have food allergies, and then determining what changes need to be made in our diet/lifestyle to avoid new allergies.  While it doesn't sound like a cure for food allergies is close by, at least with all of the clinical trials taking place, it does sound like a change will happen soon to allow us to better manage our food allergies, particularly life-threatening food allergies.  So, yes, changes are coming!