Putting my ducks in a row

Yes...we have arrived.  However, before we left I started drafting my reflection on my time in Boston.  I was hoping to finish it up and add some pictures while we were at the airport but things got insanely crazy and we barely made the flight.  So before I talk too much about our first days here let me finish what I started before our arrival.

I moved to Boston 10 years ago to complete my Dietetic Internship.  Why Boston, people ask? Jean and I were doing the long distance thing for 3 years before that and I thought I'd try to inch closer to him in France while finishing up the last step in becoming a dietitian.  One of my rotations had me in a community health center in an area of Boston called Jamaica Plain (JP).  I fell in love.  I was able to combine my love of nutrition counselling with a Latin American population, reminiscent of the summers I had spent in Latin America working on community health initiatives.  When Jean and I decided to marry, I found out that same community health center was hiring.  I have lived in Jamaica Plain ever since.

So what is it about Jamaica Plain that won me over?  For those of you who know the area its pretty obvious.  Its a diverse population and the people possess a strong sense of community.  There are green spaces have you feel as if you are miles away from a bustling major city.  When I first became pregnant with Audrey, I also found a highly organized network of mothers in Jamaica Plain to help me through my rite of passage into motherhood.  I have made some incredible friendships from this community of mothers and I find myself lucky to have been both the giving and receiving end of support and advice.  I cannot imagine my entry into motherhood in any other place.

Jean and I also used Jamaica Plain as the backdrop for our wedding.  We exchanged vows on the Arnold Arboretum, a breathtaking park  in JP.  Our reception took place at a JP landmark, the Milky Way - a quirky restaurant with candle pin bowling in the basement on salsa night.  We welcomed our two babies into our JP condo (a classic Boston triple decker).  Its the place we have made our life together.  I guess that's what makes it so hard to say goodbye.

I've shared some pictures we've taken of our beloved Jamaica Plain.  Though I hope we will have the same fondness for our new home, its hard to imagine a place that will come close to the love that we have for this community.  I hope to be proved wrong.