Back in 2001, my younger sister graduated college, got her first job and moved to Monroe. At that time, we had never even visited here before. Luis helped her move down here, and he came home that night with one of those free Homes magazines from a grocery store. We couldn't believe the house prices. Compared to where we were living, 15 minutes outside of Madison, the houses were so cheap. We looked at each other and realized that we probably could afford a home down by my sister.

We started looking at homes in the area. On one level, it felt bizarre to look for a home somewhere we had never visited, somewhere that we knew only two people (my sister and her now husband) in a city of ten thousand. Yet we knew we wanted a real house, and it seemed perfectly reasonable at the time. We scoured the internet, spent a couple of weekends down here and looked at a number of houses. We found a huge brick home with five bedrooms and more space than we could imagine at a price that boggled our mind. In Madison, nine hundred square foot starter homes with postage stamp yards cost that much. We jumped in with both feet and never looked back.

About four weeks later, we closed on our house. The day after we closed, we formally moved. Due to timing, Luis and the family members helping us move left our apartment about an hour before the girls and I were able to. I made the seventy five minute drive knowing that people were already in my home, moving my furniture into it. It was surreal. I got closer and closer, and a huge bubble of excitement well up inside of me as I started up the final hill before the city, only minutes from my new home, the home I have spent almost seven years in now and have come to love so much.

Every single time I make the drive back home from Madison with just me and the kids in the car, I still get that same bubble of excitement inside knowing that I am almost home. We may have jumped into our decision to live here, but that thrill of coming home lets me know we made the perfect choice.