You Get What You Need

[...insert Rolling Stones background music...]

I am a strong believer that in life you get what you need when you need it. Good or bad, it was meant to be*.

Of the many things I worried about before our move here, I worried most about isolation and my kids finding good friends. Our kids have amazing friends in Connecticut - the types of friendship with an open door policy that are completely accepting and supportive. St John has a population of 4,000 and not a lot of neighborhoods - I thought strong friendship might be the hardest part. I really didn't know how this part of our journey was going to pan out.

Within 4 hours of arriving at our house, we heard two kids playing next door. It was extremely likely that this was a family here on a week-long vacation and transient, but we put ourselves out there and introduced ourselves. Guess what? They moved in two days earlier and are also here for a year, with a daughter in the same grade as our daughter, and a son who gets along great with our son. They are very sweet, kind kids and all going to the same school (each grade only has 10 kids, so this is really like winning the lottery). The parents are great, too - easy going and have been super helpful with the multitude of questions we have had!

There is already a path worn between the two properties and we have an open door policy between them. We got exactly what we needed in the first 24 hours - friendship.

The path between the two houses. The kids have started a project to put rocks on each side to keep it easy to walk through.

*Interesting side note: A friend introduced me to the Chinese Parable of the Chinese Farmer - this is a great story that summarizes how I view life and has really stuck with me.