Moving Children

Moving with children definitely deserves some careful planning.  Here are some great resources I want to share with you.  If you have additional thoughts or resources please leave them in a comment at the bottom of this post!

Introducing and processing the move together:

Understanding Children, a publication from Iowa State University

Preparing your Child for a Move, Kid’s Health, Reviewed by Dr. Jennifer Shroff Pendley

Moving is Tough for Kids, by Dr. Nancy Darling

Children and Family Moves published by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

PBS Supersisters offer six tips

Education:

Brief Explanations of traditional school alternatives that you might consider for your children in your new home

A few good tips from 123 movers

Military Families:

Military Children and PCS

Care.com

http://www.militarychild.org

Long Car Trips Between Homes

Tips from Tsh Oxenreider-Who believes a passport is one of the world’s greatest textbooks

Ideas from Make and Takes

Baby Center

Brilliant Ideas From Parents All Over the Country, #3 is My Personal Fave.

Helpful Write-up by a Collection of Authors–  I especially appreciated their links

Insights from The Mother of All Trips

In addition to these resources my family found a few other ideas to be helpful.

1.  While you pack, if there is someone you trust who loves your children, set up childcare.  I found three hours per morning for two weeks before the take-off date allowed me to do a lot of packing and running errands without the girls.  We still had enough time together the rest of the day to keep a pretty normal schedule.

2.  Can’t bring the pets?  Be honest about saying goodbye to pets and allowing them to grieve the loss of that companionship.  If you think it would help, take them to visit the pet’s new home before moving.

3.  Pray for your children!  Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.”  Matthew 19:14.  He cares about the desires of their hearts as much as he cares about ours.  I’m praying that we’ll have a cherry tree, and chickens in our next home for my oldest daughter.  Right now we’re renting so it’s not an option!

Let children help pack

Cook something delicious in the new kitchen

Find the nearest park

Live like the locals- ISU football game!

Find a local toy store

Found it! It’s a combination baby/child/maternity consignment store.

Discover museums, botanical gardens, or other special attractions in your new home.  Reiman Gardens in Ames is a favorite of ours and it’s just a couple blocks from our house!

Moving with an Eternal Perspective

Even in the best cases when we’ve moved closer to family or there has been a great job offer, I find moving to be awful.  After four major relocations, it certainly hasn’t gotten any easier.  There is a delicate balance between all the goodbyes, keeping to the packing schedule, selling a house, and preparing children for the move.  For our past two moves I’ve also been pregnant- a blessing and a challenge!  To gain an eternal perspective it’s necessary to look back at history.  Here are some Biblical scenarios that have pointed me to the truth about God’s perfect provision.  If you have time- check out the surrounding passage.  The context is key.

“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Genesis 28:15 (From Jacob’s Dream at Bethel)

“My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Jesus Christ.”  Phillipians 4:19

^” By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Hebrews 11: 8-10

^” All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.  People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”  Hebrews 11:13-16

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

^” This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ^‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.  Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.‘” Jeremiah 29: 4-7

^“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.'” Jeremiah 29:11-12

Isaiah chapters 40-55

While I look forward to living a more settled life, God has provided for my family in amazing ways.  Recognizing God’s homemaking provisions in this temporary home suggests great things to come in our eternal homes.  Here’s one more passage . . .

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.” John 14:1-4