Update on Our Moving
I seemed to disappear on the face of the earth. Well, in fact, my world is like a whirlwind currently. I flew to Portland Oregon two days before Thanksgiving to spend the holiday with my daughter Mercy and her family. The day after Thanksgiving, we drove from Portland to Victoria, BC, to attend my sister’s wedding on Saturday. My other sister, Yolanda, and her husband from Hong Kong came to the wedding. It was exciting to see them. We saw each other in 2019 when my husband and I, and Mercy’s family, went to their son’s wedding in Hong Kong. Yolanda and her husband were happy to see their daughter and son-in-law in Vancouver after the wedding. I was happy to spend a few days with Yolanda’s family before returning to California on Wednesday, November 30.
We soon will say goodbye to our home of 33 years. I’ve lived in this home longer than any homes I had ever lived in the previous years of my life. Will I miss it?
I always wanted to move close to my daughter in Portland after my retirement from the public-school education. I’ve stayed in Southern California for many reasons.
For business reasons, prior to the pandemic, I was still running a private business, an after-school program as my second job since 1989. I considered it to be a service to the students and to the working parents. It was hard for me to discontinue the program. When the California schools closed for in-person attendance, the after-school programs ceased to operate. Even when schools re-open, the public schools didn’t have clear state guidelines for the after-school programs as far as wearing masks or no masks and other safety requirements. During the two years of non-operation, my after-school staff found other jobs. It would be hard for me to hire new staff and train them. I officially closed the program in January 2021.
For personal reasons, most of my friends are in Southern California since I live in this part of the country the longest. I came to Los Angeles in 1980, right after I finished school in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. I lived in Los Angeles for 6 years, in San Bernardino County for 3 years, and have lived in Orange County since 1989. Yet my friends are diminishing for many reasons. Some friends moved to other states to be closer to their grown children’s families. Some friends have declining health and are no longer active in their social life. Sadly, some had reached the end of their earthly life because of prolonged illness and cancer.
The biggest reason was that my husband wanted to be close to his mom. Most of my husband’s siblings live in Riverside. His mom also lived in Riverside by herself after her husband passed away. My husband called her on the phone regularly to check on her. He and I visited her until she moved to a Memory-Care home. When her dementia got worse, it was hard for her to talk on the phone. We drove an hour each way to visit her, but she couldn’t carry on a conversation with us. Eventually, she died of other complications in June 2022. At the end of August, my husband expressed an interest in moving to Portland to be close to Mercy and the grandkids. He said his mom’s passing made him feel free of the obligation to stay in California.
Our home search in Portland, Oregon, began toward the end of August. We made offers on three homes but withdrew them for different reasons. We withdrew the first offer because the inspector found some structural damage and we didn’t want to negotiate with the seller. On the second offer, there was another offer prior to ours. For the third offer, the interest rate started skyrocketing. We decided to sell our current home before buying another one.
We worked with an agent to list our home in mid-October. Fortunately, we got two offers after 12 days of being on the market. One offer was secured, and the closing of the escrow will be on December 7, 2022. In the meantime, we moved all our belongings to storage. On the day of closing the escrow, my husband and I will drive one car to Portland and ship one other car there. We’ll stay with my daughter while searching for a new home.
The search process is challenging. I hope we’ll have a smoother process in finding a home that was meant for us.
The Showers of Blessings 
Hi Miriam – it’s great to catch up with what has been going on in your life. I saw your more recent post about your new home in Oregon and tracked back to see about your move. Congratulations on a successful move, although that weather traveling with a truck in that later post looked tough. I’m glad you’re now near your daughter and her family!
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Thank you so much for catching up. We’re happy to be close to my daughter’s family. We have a good bond with the grandkids. When we lived with them for a month, the kids liked to wake us up and cuddle with us. We spent several days at a beach house last week, the kids asked us not to lock the door so that they could come in to cuddle in the morning.
It’s also convenient for my daughter when they need to go somewhere or have a date night and have us watch the kids.
It’s nice both ways!
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Wow, so much happening, Miriam. I am thrilled that you sold your home and will be on your way to Portland. It is wonderful that you will be close to your daughter and her family. How great to see your grandchildren on a regular basis. It is hard to say goodbye and let go to that life you had. I understand that feeling as I struggle with selling the home my husband and I lived in and raised our family. Still not ready. Good luck to you and your family as you move into this next chapter of your life.
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Selling a home and moving is such a big process. I’m typing this on your closing day. I hope everything goes smoothly!
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Thank you so much, Priscilla! We stayed at a hotel last night and got on the freeway at 5:30 this morning. We’ll take 3 days to drive to Portland and stay with my daughter for about a month. I appreciate your thoughtful wishes!
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Goodness, you have been on a whirlwind of activity. Like you, we bought a house closer to our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters just last week. We won’t take possession until Mar. 1, which is great as it gives us plenty of time to start packing. We still need to sell our house, but that will happen at some point. It’ll be quite a year.
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Oh wow, I’m happy to know you’re also moving closer to your daughter’s family. Isn’t it wonderful to be closer to them especially your granddaughters. I like your way of taking time to pack and move. We only had 6 weeks to pack, leave things in the storage and our garage. The escrow closes today. We’re driving 15 hours to Portland right now and stay with Mercy while searching for our new home.
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I’m in awe that you managed to do this in only 6 weeks! One of the huge pluses to this move is that we’ll get to do it slowly and on our own timeline. Safe travels!
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Hi Miriam, it is lovely to see an update from you. It sounds like you’ve been having a lovely time with your family and I know the move is taking up a lot of your time and energy. It will be great once it is over and your settled in a new home.
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Thank you, Robbie! The escrow closes today. We’re driving to Portland right now to stay with Mercy while searching for our new home. I look forward to spend Christmas with them.
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Wonderful, Miriam, I’m so excited for you. Safe travels to Portland.
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Thank you, Robbie.
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