It’s been almost a year since we packed up our lives and moved, full of hopes for a new chapter. We thought we were building something — a fresh start, a new rhythm, a chance to grow roots somewhere different. But life had other plans.

Our daughter’s journey changed everything.

When you walk through something like this — watching your child fight for her life — you don’t come out the same. You’re changed in ways that make it hard to recognize yourself, let alone introduce that new version of you to strangers.

We’ve tried so hard to find our footing here, but the truth is: what once felt exciting now feels distant, and the life we were building here no longer fits who we’ve become. There’s a before and after that defines everything now. And in the “after,” we’ve realized that healing doesn’t happen in isolation or in unfamiliar places. Healing happens where you feel safe to fall apart.

For us, that’s home.

Home isn’t just a place — it’s the people who already know your story, who don’t need you to explain the heaviness in your eyes or the way your laughter sounds different now. It’s the streets that hold your memories, the friends who bring comfort without asking for words, the family who has seen every version of you and still loves you through it.

We thought we could rebuild somewhere new, but grief doesn’t fit neatly into new beginnings. Sometimes, the bravest thing isn’t pushing forward into the unknown — it’s going back to where your heart can rest.

We’re moving back home, not because we failed here, but because we’ve learned what we need. We need the familiar. We need the warmth of understanding. We need to be surrounded by the people and places that remind us we’re not alone in this story.

Healing isn’t about pretending the pain didn’t happen. It’s about finding a way to live with it — and sometimes, that means returning to the roots that remind us who we are beneath the brokenness.

So we’re going home — with hearts that are tender and tired, but also ready. Ready to be held, ready to breathe again, ready to heal.

And that sometimes, the only way to move forward… is to go back.