2012 The Year Of Disaster 2013 The Year Of Change

In our family (when the kids are in bed) the wife and I talk of 2012 as "the shit year". A son diagnosed with Autism, a daughter with the kind of disdain for school that is usually reservd for 16 year olds, the most stressful work year of my wife's career and I lost my part time job. There were more "shit" things but this list gives you a sense of the situation. Then at the start of 2013 we left church. 

Since we got married we have been trying to do life the way you're supposed to but, to be honest, it just hasn't worked out. After 8 years living in our suburb I still do not really know anyone below the age of 12 (we have some neighborhood kids who regularly come over and play) all of our friends (apart from one who is a 20 min drive away) are 30-45 min drive away. My wife and my work and the kids school are a 30, 35 and 20 minute drives away respectively. What's more we feel as isolated as this aounds and we have huge petrol costs. 

So, now we're conspiring to extend the mortgage, sell our nice 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house with the awesome fruit trees and veggie patch and buy a much smaller run down 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house in walking distance from some very beautiful old friends and become a part of their community. It scares me to consider such a big change. We'd have to get new jobs, new schools as well as a new house but it's a change we feel compelled to make, where we are is just not working we have nothing apart from a really nice house with everything I ever dreamed of having in a house there's even a chair in our bedroom for goodness sake. Now we want to give that away because although I knew it already we need to live as if people are the most important thing in our lives and not stuff.