Deciding to Move to Florida

We left Virginia and moved to Florida!

We left Virginia and moved to Florida in August of 2022! We landed about 2 hours north of Orlando in the country. I’d previously had no knowledge of a rural Florida. My experience with Florida was riding the Greyhound Bus from Northern Virginia to Miami; and all the stops along the way. The decision to move to Florida was not taken lightly. In the beginning, in fact I couldn’t see it happening at all.

Leaving familiar surroundings and moving to a new state isn’t easy. Now we’re in a more rural setting; which of course has it’s pros and cons. Especially since we’re used to direct access to multiple parks, libraries, grocery stores, public transportation, etc. Out here you need a car or a horse and buggy! We’re about a 30 minute ride from the larger cities in any direction. There’s also a town 15 minutes away where they’ve got stores and other necessary shopping. So, it’s not too bad. We’re a pretty low maintenance family.

Who’s idea was it to move to Florida?

Who’s idea was it to move to Florida? So, it was my husband’s idea to move to Florida. It started out as a side comment that soon turned super real. As it has been with other great decisions in my life; I was in denial that it was even an option. Then my husband’s research into the state turned more serious. Which led me to spend time in prayer about it on my own. I clearly had reservations about it. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to move out of the city. I, personally just wanted to live in a healthier place with better air quality, more space to grow food and raise children closer to nature. I wanted more than the city limit of “7 hens but no rooster permitted”. It had also been on my heart for a long time that we need to be more self-sufficient.

The internal drive to be more self-sufficient

The internal drive to be more self-sufficient was cemented in my mind and spirit from 2019 and onward through the ‘planned catastrophe’. When we were originally searching for a new property we were trying stay within an 45 minutes to an hour of my husband’s job. For reasons above us, nothing we found stuck and pickings were slim with our parameters of what we were willing to work with. Florida went from a random comment to a more frequent topic of conversation.

As I began to pray

As I began to pray about which direction we should take more and more I kept seeing the word Florida and hearing random conversations about  Florida every other day. When you can’t seem to get away from something, you have to take it as a clear message. So, in the spirit of submitting to my husband I went to him and told him that if he’s serious about moving out of state I’ll support him and redirect my research efforts in that direction. Every husband has his strengths and every wife has hers, and together they should compliment each other.

Conclusion

Long story short we are now Florida residents sitting on 2+ acres high and dry; which all things considered we got for a great deal. We’ve begun the process of clearing the land, getting building plans drawn up, and gathering necessary info for our county’s building permit application. While the journey will be long, we don’t regret our decision and we welcome the challenges. All Praises to the Most High and welcome to my blog!