Moving to Indiana

So, maybe it’s time I explained a few things…

Sometimes people who read my blog posts or visit my facebook page think that I’ve always lived in Amish Indiana—but that’s not the case.  I moved here just eight months ago.  Before that, though, it was my favorite place for weekend getaways for the last thirty years!

I talked a lot about my story in my very first blog post, “How It Started.”  At the end of that post, I said this: 

“My husband and I hope to retire there in a few years—how wonderful that he shares my love of Amish Indiana!  When he first suggested retiring there, I thought, “What?  Leave my life in Illinois and start over?”  But now I am looking forward to it more than I can say.  It suits me.  It suits us.”

So, in the fall of 2016, we got serious about retiring, and we got serious about buying a new house.  We decided that we would retire shortly after I turned 62 and he turned 65—on July 1, 2017. 

By November 2016 we had purchased a ranch house in Middlebury, Indiana and—unexpectedly early—sold our home in Yorkville, Illinois.  It was time to move our clothes and a few pieces of furniture to a rented condo in Yorkville, and everything else to Middlebury!  My husband spent lots of time moving trailer-loads of stuff over there, and I spent weekends unpacking and making it seem like home.  But it had to be just a weekend place for the time being.  Patience!

As 2017 rolled in, our plans changed because of two very unexpected “acts of God”—first, Gary’s place of employment (Pilkington in Naplate, IL) was blown apart by a tornado—and then I got stage 3 thyroid cancer. 

 

I had surgery in Illinois, but decided to have the radiation treatment in Indiana.  And Gary's last months at Pilkington were turning out nothing like he hoped they would be...  It was time to accelerate our plan!

By May I was living in Middlebury, and Gary followed in early June.

So, here we are!...  We love it here, and after a pretty rough summer, I feel blessed to be alive and healthy (and cancer-free!) and living in Amish Indiana.  Sometimes dreams do come true.