When my husband and I decided to start a family, we also decided to change just about every other major part of our lives simultaneously. We left Austin, TX and moved across country to Atlanta, GA. We accepted new career positions, bought a huge house, and decided to settle down.

This all made sense at the time, and seemed like the thing to do. A large part of our motivation was wanting to be close to extended family. We knew we were having the ONLY grand children on both sides, and since neither of us had any experience with babies, we knew we’d be needing some serious help.

On the positive side, our family members have made great use of our proximity by coming to visit regularly. They’ve helped us in countless ways, and the time we’ve had with them has been priceless.

However, all the love in the world does not change the day to day reality that we are living a life we don’t really want. We learned that owning a large home is not our cup of tea. The jobs we accepted turned out to be in a toxic working environment full of soul-sucking vampires (take my word for it).

We’ve found ourselves placing an unreasonable burden on our family to somehow help us get by – but we’ve been asking them to fight a losing battle. There is nothing that they can do to fix it – we are the ones who need to live from our passions.

So, Family, thank you for all you’ve done to help us build a life here. I’m sure you’ve felt the burden of us living this life of drudgery. I hereby free you from that weight, just as I am freeing myself.

It’s not your job to take care of me anymore, or make me happy. I am going to start doing that for myself.

I look forward to a future in which we can come together for fun and for pleasure and share in the many joys of our blessed lives.