Sappy Goodbye Post

Well, here it is.  This thing I started just so I would have a better way to share videos with loved ones and that has turned into a way to journal about and catalog the happenings in our lives is coming to an end.  It's been almost 6 and 1/2 years of blogging, 1,850 posts and almost 140,000 pageviews.  

But mostly, it's been a great outlet for me.  There's so much to being a mom and I've found that it's fun to share it, to savor it, to save it.  These are the moments I will look back on that passed like a flash.  And I will have the blog to view to bring it all back (sometimes very, very vividly and specifically thanks to my verbosity).  

Shutting down the blog is in a way a relief.  It's a lot of work to stay up on writing about and posting pictures of this busy, wonderful life we lead.  It's become very difficult this past year to find the time to do so.  And I never wanted this therapeutic thing to become something that added stress.  

But saying goodbye to this blog, is also a way of saying goodbye to this season, just as we are saying goodbye to Pittsburgh.  This is the place where I had my babies.  This is the blog where I shared that with you.  This is where I made all my friends.  And where the Lord blessed us with family when we had none within reach.  This is where our kids started their lives, their relationships, their schools.  There's a lot wrapped up here.  And this timing of moving on and therefore also a good time to say goodbye to the blog, is oh so much greater than just that little virtual goodbye to the internet infrastructure that brings our lives to yours.  It's closing a chapter, it's shutting a door, it's truly saying goodbye to a life we've known and loved.

But praise the Lord, that we can already see His goodness and provision in this next chapter.  We can see Him pulling together the details of what lies ahead.  And we are excited and thankful.  We can't wait to be close to family.  We can't wait to give our boys a backyard.  We love New England and all that it offers and can't wait to explore this area with our boys and make a new life together in a new place.  There truly is an excitement in our family unit.  Albeit bittersweet at times, sometimes you have to say goodbye to say hello to something just as wonderful, something just as promising, something just as meaningful.  And we trust that is what lies ahead.  

So, thanks for coming along for this part of our lives.  And stay tuned for how to keep up with us in the future.

And who knows...  Maybe this won't be my only blog.  But this is the end of the Melder Family Blog.  That busy mom raising 4 boys in the Burgh is moving on.