How Our Florida Dream Began

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Life was very different pre-covid. Our life consisted of the girls going to school, and then we lived on the soccer field. Our oldest two played premiere soccer for Washington Premiere. Life, as we knew it, was so very crazy and a little bit chaotic. We usually didn't make it to bed most nights until 10 or so. It seemed we were always on the road traveling for a game. Lee and I wanted things to change. To slow down. We honestly didn't know how to tell the girls, it was a bit much. Especially with society tell you, start your kids early playing sports. Start them as soon as they hit Kindergarten in club sports or they will never make it. So, life continued at a fast pace until the day the Country and our state was shut down. With a sigh of relief, for the first time in a long time, we felt like we could breath again. 

                                                                                           Of course, right before our state was shut down and the schools took somewhat of a hiatus from school, both of our older two begged to be homeschooled. Public schools seemed to be going in a different direction than what we wanted and quite frankly, there was a lot of bullying. So, we did tons of research and I reached out to my cousin's wife, who was homeschooling her 3 daughters, and she told me how great it was. I also reached out to my sister in law who also was homeschooling her children at the time. They were using the same program and said how much they loved it. We looked into it, as it was a Christian program and decided to give it a try. We jumped in with both feet! We ordered everything we would need. It arrived 3 days, before the state shut down. We jumped right in! It was a lot of fun and they loved the freedom it gave us! We even showed the school district the work they were doing and they said it was so advance, and had so much more knowledge, they were released from the public schools immediately. It was a much fuller, well-rounded education. 

We decided it was time to focus on our future, now that we could see clearly again. And guess what? The girls finally felt relieved! They could be normal kids again. They had missed so many birthday parties and events because of Soccer. Not to mention, Isabella decided to play select Basketball as well. Addy tried basketball, and while she was good at it, her love had been soccer. She practiced in the rain, the snow, and 90 plus degree heat! Going back to our future, I really wanted to go home to Hawaii! Pre-Covid it was an option. Then, prices started to jump! Well Hawaii was off the table. So where could we retire to that was always warm and had the things we loved to do? We love the outdoors! Immediately, without hesitation, I said, "Orlando! I want to live there!" Now given, We'd never been to Florida, but it has everything we love! Beaches, Disney, Universal, Trails, you name it! Thus, began our dreams of someday retiring there! 

We told our friends and family, that is where we will someday end up, and we got a lot of feedback. Those who supported us,  wished us well and said they wanted to come visit. Those who were against it, told us we were crazy! But we knew, that was our final destination, so we slowly started to dream of our future. 

Until next time.