When we first moved to the desert I was amazed at so many things I had never seen before. As a homeschool family we did unit studies on the Sonoran, Mojave, Chihuahuan, and the Great Basin deserts of North America.... and my amazement grew.
I am not sure the children enjoyed all of our field trips and studies but we learned names of cacti, trees and animal life that we had never encountered before.
It was all new to us and we got excited the first time we saw mirages, saquaro cactus, a scorpion or a road runner and marveled at how anything could live in the hot, dry, arid climate.

Then we began to learn other things that weren't so fun and interesting. We learned to drink lots of water after a couple of trips to the doctor for dehydration, and, in the summer, to freeze our water bottles so that when we took them outside they melted and stayed cool-- it was no fun to drink hot water from a water bottle when you were hot and tired from exercise. We also learned that it could feel amazingly cool in the shade even when the temperature was three digits and that 120 degrees is bearable if you are acclimated and if you could find shade. We hardly ever needed a coat or real shoes, flip-flops or sandals were almost always sufficient.

Then it started to get old.

The heat and the hot, dry wind every day.

Rain a couple of times a year.

No fall or winter, just a change in temperature and wind.

And once it started to get old it was hard to get excited about seeing another cactus or lizard.

Then I began to feel homesick.
Homesick for trees that bloom and change their colors.
Homesick for grass that was soft and green.
Homesick for cattle and barns and tractors in the fields.
Homesick for people who would be homesick for those things too.

And that is where I am now.

I have grown tired of city life and I am ready to go back to a place where I can grow things in the ground.
A place where I can watch the trees I plant grow to be shade someday.
I have felt out of place in the desert, and now here: the entire time we've lived here.
I just don't fit in with the people who live here.
I have known it all along but I have tried to make the best of it.

Last year, when we were in Tucson (Sonoran desert), we went to a Butterfly and Desert garden. While we were there we saw a male and female cardinal. They both looked so out of place in the desert and I stood and watched them for a while.
They were making a nest in a mesquite tree.
I have always thought of red birds as birds of the southeast, and I always associate them with Virginia since they are the state bird and that is our home.
So, it seemed odd to me to see these two beautiful birds in the desert but apparently they live throughout Texas and in the Sonoran desert.

Today as I was thinking about how out of place I feel here in Colorado I thought of those birds.

They were making the best of their situation there in the desert: building a nest, building a life.

That is what we have tried to do as we have finished out this military life. It hasn't always been easy and we have tried not to think of the things we missed at home, that was the hardest part.

We tried to fit in and to understand the people who like city life or desert life or high-altitude life (living at high-altitude in Colorado is essentially desert living in the summer and fall then winter at all other times). It has been difficult and we have been discouraged and frustrated but we knew all we had to do was build a temporary nest. We were like the Israelites wandering in the desert waiting to enter the promised land.
We know it will be hard to leave some of the friends we have made and we all admit we will miss the big, bluer than blue skies. The mountains are lovely here but, we are from a different type of mountains and, I have missed that blue ridge so much!

And now it is time for us to move on and we are ready.

More than ready really.

Excited.

And looking forward to seeing lots of red birds this year in our home state of Virginia.