Seattle

I woke up this morning rather on time for a change. Made a good breakfast, got ready, packed my gym bag and headed out the door. There is an early morning chill right now that says it is fall, even if the midday temperatures are still in summer mode, and I had to wait for my car to defog a bit before heading out to the transit center to catch the bus downtown. I pulled out of my street, turned onto Wallingford Ave, and there before me I could see Seattle in all its glory, sunlight reflecting off the skyscrapers in the mist.

And I realized, I won't have that view first thing in the morning for much longer.

Jer owns a house in Bothell. Well, he says it's Mill Creek, but the post office claims it is Bothell, and I tend to be a stickler for legal descriptions. Really, it is a no-man's land at the convergence of a bunch of places: just north of where I5 meets 405, if you head west half a mile you are in Lynnwood; go east half a mile and you are in Mill Creek proper.

It's a nice house-even though I have never been much for split level construction it has its own charm and the floor plan works pretty well. Our yard is kind of awkward but there is a prettyish sort of wilderness on one side and a peaceful place to sit and read. I feel at home there, and look forward to converting it from the nerdy bachelor pad it is to a good joint expression of us. Jer wants to remodel the kitchen and build me a walk-in closet; I want to paint the walls and buy patio furniture. And it is wonderful, in the midst of all the planning craziness and the moving and the big life change of marriage, to not have to worry about finding a place to live.

But still, it's Bothell. It's an hour commute to work, half an hour (in good traffic) to church. Far from my friends in Seattle, my family in Burien, my favorite places like Kerry Park and Greenlake. I'll go from being able to walk to the lake or bus downtown to the market to living in suburbia. I can't really say that I live in Seattle anymore-although I'll probably try to pull something like "I live just north of Seattle" or "I live in the Seattle area." For the past ten years I have loved saying that I live in Seattle. Even when I was living with my parents in Burien I put Seattle as my address because we lived right on the line (wait, that's what Jer does with his Mill Creek thing. I guess I have to stop teasing him about that. Oh well.) I just love Seattle. A lot.

But I love Jer more.

I have always said that I only had three relationship dealbreakers: he had to be a passionate Christian, he had to want kids, and he had to want to live in Seattle. I was talking to my mom awhile back, before Jer and I were engaged, when I was deciding that he was the man for me. My mom asked what I would do if Jer was called to live somewhere else, to leave the Northwest, to go serve the Lord in a foreign country or take care of family back east or some such thing. And in the process of mulling over that question I realized that I would follow him anywhere, that while I would be sad, I would go. I felt the conviction in my soul that truly, home is wherever he is.

That doesn't mean that I would ever really want to leave, or that I won't still fight passionately for raising our kids in Seattle. Really, a house in Wallingford or somewhere around Greenlake has always been my ideal. And I will miss my current house, with my awesome roomies and my easy access lifestyle. But I would do just about anything to live with this man I love. I'll brave the commute and the rising gas costs and the suburban shopping centers, just to be there to take him in my arms when he gets home from a long day at the office.

So come October, my address will no longer be Seattle. And I will be happy about it. I'm also excited to learn that there will be a Quest Northside Community Group just down the street from us. And who knows, if the real estate market ever recovers, maybe someday soon we can sell the Bothell house and move back down to Seattle. Jer is not averse to the idea-the more I show him around Seattle the more he seems to like it. Someday perhaps my kids can wake up to a view of Seattle out their bedroom window. I hope they will love this city as much as I do.