Home Sweet Home!!!!

This was the very last time we would pack the car because our final destination was fast approaching. We had a wonderful stay in Las Vegas and I have to admit Las Vegas will always have a very special place in my heart for a myriad of reasons. One (or actually two) reason is our children were born in Las Vegas and my daughter even wanted to go to the “Lellow” park yesterday as she remembered this to be her favorite park when she was two years old. She still calls it “Lellow” because when we first started going there this is how she would pronounce the word yellow. I found this to be so cute and the three of us did head over to the park yesterday afternoon.

I think all of the stars were aligned for our trip because not only did we see hardly any rain when we arrived in Las Vegas it was unusually “cool” as the temperature was only in the 80 as opposed to the 100’s which it is normally. We sat outside in our dear friend’s backyard last night and enjoyed incredible weather and it felt more like October in Las Vegas rather then July.

I was hoping to connect with the person who had offered me the job at the Las Vegas Recovery Center over two years ago and I will chalk this one up to it was just not meant to be. I touched base with him yesterday and was hoping to visit him at the office this morning which is only five minutes away from our friend’s house. However; this morning he was away from the office and wasn’t going to be back until later in the afternoon. He did express interest of keeping in contact with me which I will certainly do.

As I mentioned Las Vegas has a very special place in my heart and being a compulsive gambler living in Las Vegas may not seem to be the ideal place. However; Las Vegas has the most Gamblers Anonymous meetings in the country (no surprise there) and there are literally meetings morning, afternoon and evening. I’m not inferring that I will end up back in Las Vegas but the opportunity which was presented to me two years ago seemed ideal and I would like to keep this “window” open. I know my wife didn’t want to talk about any further moves as she is concentrating on this move which made perfect sense to me. I will keep in touch with this person and continue to take life one day at a time.

Today is a very special day because we depart Las Vegas for Southern California where we will reconvene as a family in a home for the first time in two years. Time has certainly gone by quickly and a great deal has happened in the past two years but we are together as a family. My favorite part of this entire trip was being with my family. It didn’t matter if we were in the Capitol Building or in the locker room of the hot springs pool. The fact of the matter is I am with my family and today we will all be under the same roof, WOW!!!!

The car was packed for the final time and we departed Las Vegas this morning. Everyone was anxious to get home. I was asked by each of my children what time would we arrive home and my time estimates were slightly off because we made an impromptu “pee” stop on the side of the road. When my son has to go he has to go and for the second time on the trip the side of the road was the most accessible stopping venue. My time estimate was only off by five minutes but five minutes to two anxious children could seem like a lifetime.

I could feel my daughter smile as we got within an hour of home. She then proceeded to talk and I could hear her very excited words. This help to excite my son and that last hour to my children may have seemed like a lifetime. My wife remained quiet but I could see a very excited anxiousness on her face. We were approaching our final destination and the way to the new house is very similar to the old house. We were making our way to the new house when my wife said, “this is very weird” as the turns were almost identical. We got to the part where we had to go left instead of right and I could hear a sigh come from my wife.

We turned down our new street to see our very dear friends standing by our house waiting to great us. We got out of the car and each of us was greeted with warm hugs. Our dear friends have children the identical ages as us and their children were also very excited to see their friends. After the great welcome home we entered the house as a family. The children ran upstairs to see their rooms while my wife took it all in. She purposely took her time savoring every moment.

There were a few things I didn’t tell her about because I wanted to see her reaction and one of the reactions was priceless. My wife moved through the downstairs and she kept saying this is very nice and she did mean this. Our friend did convince my wife to see the backyard complete with the fruit trees and vegetable garden. I had told my wife about these but what I purposely didn’t tell her about was the clothesline in along the side of the house. My wife has wanted a clothesline for as long as we have been married. My wife firmly believes in air drying many of the clothes and has several clothes drying racks. Now she won’t need these racks anymore.

Or dear friend gently coaxed my wife to the side of the house where the clothesline had been installed and almost immediately my wife screamed and started jumping up and down with shear joy. This was indeed a priceless reaction and I started laughing, our friend started laughing and my wife was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes. It was amazing what a very simple apparatus could do to a person. This was well worth the wait and something I will not forget.

After the clothesline encounter my wife continued her tour of the house and made her way upstairs. She was so overwhelmed with everything she didn’t notice that the walls of the master bedroom were the same as the walls in our old master bedroom which match our bedding. I did point this out and my wife wanted to know if I had painted the walls this color. No, I had not painted the walls this color; it is just something that worked out this way.

My wife gave her approval and seemed to like the house very much. She did venture into the garage where there are many (might be an understatement) boxes which need to be unpacked but even this couldn’t damper her mood. She was pleased and here we are a family altogether under the same roof for the first time in two years.

We spent the evening at a very dear friend’s house that was kind enough to invite us over for dinner. We had a lovely dinner and watched the children play so well together. The children hadn’t seen each other since last year and really hadn’t seen much of one another in the past two years yet it was as if they had just seen each other yesterday. It was wonderful watching them interact and I had to smile from ear to ear.

We made it from New Jersey to California and life is so much better today then it has ever been all thanks to recovery. Without recovery none of this is possible and with recovery all of this is possible. I have waited for this moment ever since I hugged my children goodbye in New Jersey two years ago. Life is an amazing journey and my life is amazing because of three very special people and now I get to share a life with all of them. WOW!!!!!!