Its been a busy and exciting few weeks in our lives. A move, new jobs, new experiences and new connections to friends. If anything I should know first hand a phone call or a moment can change your life forever and send you down a whole new path in life. Honestly, for me it's like just when you think you have settled into your life after a change something else comes along to send us on a wild ride. So for me this is just another adventure on this road called life.
Like everything I have ever been through I always find peace in music and the last three weeks have been no different. I have been able to met new people who have brought new music into my life, many songs of which I or Bailey can relate to personally.
So let's break it down shall we! So the middle of July my husband got a call with a job offer on a site just outside of Edmonton. Well of course he is going to take it, I mean who wouldn't take a Monday to Friday job! Not only did it get us out of Fort McMurray but also closer to the editor for the website/magazine that Bailey is now writing for. So for us it didn't take much thinking to say yes to the move.
Moving in itself is always stressful but when you are packing and sorting and needing it to be done in two weeks it is even more stressful! We made the decision to store our things and stay in my in-laws for a bit. We figure this will give us time to find the right location for our family and get some debts paid and money saved after the financial crisis we were faced with in the last year. So lots of changes just in that one decision.
Then we add the job Bailey has been given the opportunity to have. She is now the Teen Beat writer for Starlight Music Chronicles which has already in its short time connected her (and us) to artists and other writers who have a personal connection to our goals with Morgan's Mission. She has been introduced to local artists Bryan Finlay who has a personal connection to bullying and writes about it in his song Bulletproof, Shay Esposito who speaks about her battles with bullying and mental illness in her songs I See Everything and Medication, the band Rend with their song Scars and many others. The chief editor and creator behind SMC also has a very personal connection to suicide as she lost her cousin to suicide a few years ago which gives her and our family a personal connection like nothing anyone could ever imagine. Candice Marshall has a heart of gold and knows the importance to making these issues known to everyone.
So while all these changes have been happening and yes they are all positive and good changes we are often left with the question how is everyone adjusting. Well Bailey will take time and the true test will be when school starts before we will know for sure how she has adjusted to the move. For Greg, well he is happy to be out of an isolated town that seen his daughter leave us way too soon. And for me I am torn. While I know so many things that are happening are all good and that change can be good I am left thinking this is the first major decision we have had to make since Morgan ended her life and its hard. I feel a connection to Fort McMurray that will never go away. It is where the first major change happened for our family but also the city which Morgan was last a part of our family physically and that means I will always feel a push pull connection to Fort McMurray.
Reality is Fort McMurray is an amazing community with support that went above and beyond what I ever expected for my family after the loss we faced but I also know that resources Bailey needs in her life are not there on a full time basis and that isn't something we can live with. I will always be grateful for the community and will always continue to fight for the resources they need but for my family we need to have those close at hand for Bailey now.
So now we yet again will adjust to life changes and take each obstacle as it comes like every other one that has been thrown at us in the last couple years. There will be rough times and patches, but there will also be good times and exciting opportunities to make it worth the choice we made. So in the words of Bryan Finlay "Nothing good can last forever so live it up while we can" (Live It Up) and honestly at this point in my life it is the best advise I have heard in a song so for me that is just what I am going to do!