by Hope
One started submitting their resume early last year.
Two told me at Thanksgiving.
One told me at Christmas.
Another laid out their plans in mid-February.
And, of course, one is already here.
Yes, what I’m saying is that my kids have begun a migration to Texas.
Beauty has been here for just over two weeks now, started a new job, and has found housing. She’s staying here with my parents and I in the meantime, but will return to GA within the month to pack up the house, the animals, and the husband. We anticipate they will be moved into their new place by the end of March.
History Buff made clear his intention to move to Texas when his current lease is up in August. He’s hoping his roommate/best friend will make the move with him.
Sea Cadet wants to move here too. However, we’ve discussed him sitting tight in VA until he finishes the degree he’s working on in preparation for applying to PA school (eventually.)
Princess is the hold out. But she is coming for 3 different week+ long visits between now and mid-year. She arrives for a 10 day visit this week. Woot, woot!
It will be interesting to see who all is here by the end of 2026. (No pressure from me.)
Move My Stuff
I am here as moral support. They are getting no pressure from me to move. In fact, I continue to caution them that I don’t know what I will do next, after my parents no longer need me. I never wanted Texas to be my home again. But we shall see…
In the meantime, I’ve got to decide if this is the time to move my storage from GA. Since Beauty and her husband will be making the move, it may be a good time to get my stuff moved. Share the cost of a Uhaul maybe? I’ve begun pricing storage here.
Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.
But life has a way of rewriting your plans.
A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.
Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.
Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.
She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.
This sounds like heaven for a momma’s heart. But please don’t let it be a silent drain on your potential savings. You have already supplemented a significant amount to some of your kids over the past year already. Don’t let your excitement/happiness of them being closer to you turn into monetary help getting them there and settled. You’ve raised them all to be independent, let them be independent.
My main advice for this is to redirect your happy energy into non-monetary help like advice on towns to live in, packing/unpacking help, a BYO coffee date in a park, an apartment hunting trip. There are lots of ways you can help or share your excitement without buying things or going out to lunch with them.
I agree with Angie – I hope this does not turn into a financial drain. If they have decided to move to Texas of their own volition, then they need to make sure they are prepared for that. You’re still budgeting and figuring things out, you cannot support them all, at all. Princess I hope stays where she is, and tbh I am surprised that she and Beauty want to move to a state that doesn’t seem to be POC friendly. Or woman friendly.
I agree. Texas is very troublesome politically, and as a woman and a mother of daughters I could never encourage my kids to move there during the current administration.
Yeah, I have two cousins born and raised there- their mom is an immigrant. Mom and one cousin very red, one cousin blue and not speaking to mom as much. All women of colour to boot. I hope it works out for them all, maybe cost of living where they are combined with pay is amazing!
My first reaction is how lovely this will be to have family closer together! The second, more powerful reaction is a feeling of impending doom for your finances. DO NOT take this as an opportunity to fund any of these moves. You are their momma, not their bank. They need to figure out a way to do this all on their own. Emotionally support them, yes. Prayerfully support them, yes. Physically support them, yes – to the extent that you can unpack boxes or point out where the couch should sit in an apartment. But do not, under any circumstances derail your future by spending money you don’t have to spend. You’re at a precipice of success. Do not go back into debt. Please keep Dave Ramsey’s gazelle intensity in the forefront of your mind.