Diamond's Are Forever: 678 Miles to The Diamond's House

It has been SIX months since I've sat down and really taken the time to blog it out. Six months?! Life has been pretty wild, but good to us over the past six months.  We have set off on perhaps the biggest adventure, to date, as a Diamond family. We picked up and moved exactly 678 miles away, or 801 if you take the scenic route like my dad, the baby boys and I {accidentally} did on our way out here. We have just become residents of Broadus, Montana.  It was a quick decision, a shot in the dark, a gamble, and an adventure.  However, if we take it back to the very beginning, I'm talking before marriage, Zac and I have always discussed the possibility of moving out of State. As our family grew, naturally our financial stability grew tough.  Still, the idea of moving from of Utah remained in our conversations of the future, but seemed a little out of reach. We had discussed the idea would realistically only work if one of us had a job paying for most of the expenses of moving. We even discussed the exact option of working for Midstates and traveling as a family wherever they would send us. When the very opportunity presented itself, we took it. Zac applied and accepted this job within a matter of a week. Quick decision, indeed.  Just shy of three weeks after he accepted the position, he was to report to Ashland, MT for his first day. When I discovered this is where we would be moving I, like anyone else, couldn't stop researching the area. I instantly grew hesitant upon learning the population of Ashland, and surrounding cities, is approximately 465! This is about how many students made up the entire high school my senior year! "There's no way," I thought. We are from Nephi, which is small, but the population there is around 4,700 {six and a half years ago}. I told Zac I refused to live in Ashland, due to the size. We looked over the map and saw there would be a few options that would be a little bigger.  Upon Zac's arrival, we would soon learn just how deceiving maps are. Broadus is 45 miles East of Ashland where Zac's main job is out of. The closest city with a decent population and a little more livelihood is Miles City. Of course Miles City is 130ish miles (one way) from Ashland. What kind of wife would I be if I were to expect my husband to make that kind of commute on the daily? So, here we are, in Broadus, MT.
Broadus is a cute little town in the middle of nowhere, Eastern Montana. The town is made up of one small grocery store, a couple of antique shops, one coffee shop, a few cafes, a three lane bowling alley, a hardware store, and a handful of bars. They, like Nephi, have one stop light.  The same red flashing four-way stop light as the 90's in Nephi. The people here have all been nothing but nice to us, very welcoming. The gentlemen at the grocery store have always carried my groceries all the way to my car for me.  Such a kind gesture as I'm usually towing two small children along. Drayze has made friends everywhere we have went. No matter the age, the size, shape or gender, you can find Drayze chatting all the ears off. The weather here is something else! In one week I have witnessed nonstop lighting bright enough to light up the entire sky, thunder loud enough to shake the entire house, intense enough rain to create a random creek and waterfall in residents back yard, and just yesterday, hail literally the size of golf balls! Silly enough, next to having my family under one roof again, the weather has been my favorite part of being here.
I would be lying if I didn't say this has been extremely hard, and most days I think about how I just want to go home. It's a whole lot harder being away from our family and friends than I ever imagined. It's strange when I truly think about it, because it's not like I spent a whole ton of time with my family or friends while in Nephi, with the exception of the last few weeks when I lived with my parents. It's knowing your loved ones are two blocks away that is the real comfort. I've struggled living in such a tiny town with minimal services/options. Last weekend we went to Miles City, and as we pulled in I literally sighed of relief to see city and life more familiarity.
The days are long as I sit with my two children in a home I'm not yet comfortable in, surrounded by unfamiliar faces and an overwhelming amount of land. I miss the life we were used to, and the people I am used to seeing so frequently. I miss the lemonade and crushed ice from Conoco. I miss riding my bike to the dollar store or my mom's house. I miss driving the ladies at the credit union nuts on the daily. But, even more than that, I missed my husband and having my family together while we spent those three weeks states apart. More important than the comfort of being in the place I call home is trying to provide the best life possible for our family.  I still don't know if this was the right decision, I don't know if what we decided to do is best for our family.  Maybe it will all work out even better than we ever imagined, or maybe we will come home with our tail between our legs because it's not what we thought. There's only one way to find out, and that is to try. "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."  Though it be hard, it will be worth it. Even if this doesn't pan out, it will be worth the adventure.