Montgomery: A Year + Later
Well, here we are well into our time in Montgomery, AL — over halfway to be exact. We’ve made it through our second sweat-dripping summer and I feel like we need a badge of honor. Phew!
It’s no secret that I have not thoroughly enjoyed our time here in the Deep South. Montgomery itself leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion. Even though it is the state capital and boasts a population of close to 200K—the city is fairly lackluster. I love a diverse array of restaurants and coffee shops, fun little boutiques to pop into and pass some time. I thrive in experiencing weather from each season, especially a good autumn and embracing sweater weather. Unfortunately, Montgomery lacks in all of these categories. Not to mention, the worst drivers that I’ve ever experienced in all our locations! And I still can’t get behind the “ya’ll.”
We started out our stay in Montgomery with our world flipped upside down as we navigated life in the space in between. Ara was a student in a program on the local military base while I stayed home with Nora. I had become use to the rhythm we had in Germany—where he was home every night at 5 pm and didn’t bring home work with him. This was a completely different story, with constant attention to school, reading and paper writing. It seemed I had become a psuedo-single mom even though my other half was at home, he was pre-occupied with deadlines of notes, papers and endless hours of reading. It took some time, but we developed a system where we worked together and the days didn’t seem so long after all.
Even though this house is our least favorite of all our homes together—we probably should have smudged it with a sage stick upon arriving. We’ve still created some sweet memories and celebrations in it. We hosted Thanksgiving for several International officers from Ara’s school, celebrated Nora’s first birthday, hosted several family members and friends and have done some epic revitalizing of the grass in our yard—including adding space for hammock swinging. I think there is definitely something to seeing a house and having that “feeling” when you walk into it. This home, along with our condo in Hawaii, have been the only homes I haven’t stepped foot in before calling it home. Ara secured our condo in Hawaii before I arrived and we rented this spot sight unseen with some help from our friend Sarah. Looking back at renting our homes in Tacoma and Germany, I had that special feeling when walking in to tour those homes and hope that I’ll be able to have that in-person, special feeling before renting or buying our next house.
2020 has looked different for all of us in many ways but it’s where we actually started coming into our ourselves and our journey here in Montgomery. Ara didn’t end up returning in-person to his school after Spring Break, instead working from home and attending his classes via Zoom/Teams. We fell into a new routine and Ara was able to be at home with us for five months. The new routine was so refreshing to all of us—easing into the mornings all together, lunch time walks/picnics and watching our toddler grow every day together. Once the stay-at-home orders were lifted we made a point to seek out businesses that interested us that we hadn’t checked out before. We found ourselves spending more time in the neighboring town of Auburn, touring the University and some great local eateries. We ventured east of Montgomery to a neighborhood, The Waters where we discovered the cutest little coffee shop to spend time.
Back in January we enrolled Nora for the Mother’s Morning Out, a morning preschool program at a local church—but with COVID we weren’t sure it would be happening. The program adapted for the new protocol and we bought Nora her own backpack/lunchbox and away she went to school in September. Two days a week she is learning, growing and playing with five of her peers and it has been a great outlet for all of us. I’ve really enjoyed the chance to have a few hours of uninterrupted time to get appointments done, coffee dates, laundry folding, recipe testing or some solo walking.
Ara and I have been reflecting that even though we aren’t in love with Montgomery or the South itself, we are really enjoying our current situation here. We’ve had Ara home with us every night while we’ve been here (he pointed out that I’m the one that’s ventured away for some fun time while we’ve been here, hello Miami and Highlands NC trips!). Having him home every night without the idea of him going away for a training or a deployment plus the added daytime during the stay-at-home orders has not been lost on me (or Nora)—it’s a true blessing that we may never have again and I cherish it. We’ve also come into some great babysitters and neighbors. During the stay-at-home orders our neighbors were the only people we were seeing on a consistent basis. Nora can make her way around the neighborhood now and wave hello to almost all the neighbors by name (having a cute toddler running around sure helps get to know neighbors quicker). Even though we are transient with the military we truly appreciate when neighbors take the time to get to know us and we feel truly loved and seen by both our next door neighbors.
We are never sure where the compass is going to land in the future or what direction the Air Force has for us—but we are beginning to see why we were destined for two years in Montgomery. We’ve gotten over some big hurdles (postpartum anxiety/depression), been attacked numerous times by fire ants, watched Nora take her first steps and hugged neighbors during hard times—let’s see what else comes our way.
Here’s to our last year in the capital of Alabama and making it count!
