Home, Sweet.... Somewhere Else

I've lived in my current home for over ten years, which is the second longest of any place I've ever lived.  And it feels like home.  I've had the itch to move, though, for a couple of years now, but it's hard to imagine living somewhere else.  It's a nice community, kind of a United Nations, as there are many people who speak languages other than English.  My daughter has close friends who are Indian, Pakistani, Hispanic, Korean, African, Hungarian, and Filipino, and that's just on our street.  And we're all Americans, and love our country and our freedoms.

My home is starting to not feel like much of a home, though, as there are things going on around the community that have not been seen much before.  Like murder.  Armed robbery.  Theft.  Violence.  Vandalism.  Howard County is a great place to live, overall, but we live near the extreme southern part of the county, very close to Prince George's County (which, ironically, is where I grew up), and these types of crimes are actually more prevalent there than here.  But these things are happening more and more in our area, and I'm not very happy about it.

Three years ago, my sister's car was parked in front of our house.  Shortly after she arrived at our house to watch my daughter, between 5:45 a.m. and when I left for work, at about 6:15 a.m., someone had shattered the driver's side window of her car and stole three CDs off of the front seat.  About a year later, my own car had the passenger side window shattered and my GPS was stolen.  To me, these are such stupid inconveniences, and it makes me angry that people feel the need to do these things.  You begin to feel violated, especially because you feel like you're safe, then, in a moment, you're not.

Just the other day, a liquor store about 3/4's of a mile from our home was robbed by armed and masked gunmen.  Fortunately no one was killed.  But over the past month, there have been other crimes committed that have me thinking twice about wanting to raise my daughter in this environment.

I know that where I live is probably one of the best places to live on the entire planet.  The Lord has blessed us so much.  But my faith in humanity is diminished every day as crime and violence hits closer and closer to home.  Where do you go to escape it?

I've decided my next move, which will be soon, probably within the next 2 years, will be my last move until I retire.  There are a few neighborhoods that I will explore, probably not too far from where we are now, but certainly much safer, I hope.  I know only too well that there are no guarantees in life, but I'm hopeful that God will protect us no matter where we live.  It's about quality of life, and I want so much for my daughter to have a quality life, and be happy.

And, when it's time for me to retire, which will be right around the time my daughter finishes college, I'm moving out of the area completely.

Have a great evening, everybody!