Sad, Mad and Bittersweet

For those of you who didn't know yet, Thomas moved to the Houston Texans as of Sunday afternoon. Long story short, we waited all day Saturday for a phone call from the Patriots to tell us whether he had a job here or not. My siblings were all staying on Cape Cod for Labor Day weekend, so we were able to distract ourselves out there until we got the phone call. When the call finally came, all they said was "Thomas, Bill needs to talk to you, how soon can you get here?" We hopped in the car and began one of the longest hours of our lives, not knowing whether they were going to cut him or put him on the practice squad. Bill was very complimentary of Thomas and told him the Pat's wanted him for their practice squad again. We were totally fine and relieved by that, but then found out that if a team wanted him in the next 24 hours, they could have him and we'd have no say in the matter. (I knew about the 24 hour waiver period, but we were under the impression that you could say "no" to the team in order to stay on the practice squad here.)

We breathed a semi-sigh of relief and headed back out to the Cape for another night. Thomas came back to sign his contract the next morning at the noon deadline, but we were unaware that 4 teams had attempted to place claims on him. By 1:00, Thomas was texting me "I'm still waiting to sign my contract, I don't know what is taking them so long." A few minutes later, Belichick came and congratulated him on being picked up by the Texans, and told him he was sorry to see him go.

And then the flood of tears began on my part. Well, I waited until I was off the phone with Thomas, then called my 3 closest friends here on the team and wept like a baby. My brothers and their wives drove me back to Foxboro so that I could take Thomas to the airport and 3 hours later, he was gone.

My emotions are mostly sadness about leaving New England and the first day I was so angry at the whole situation. I felt so mad that God would take us away from here after only 11 months, and it just doesn't feel fair that we are going to our 3rd team since May 2010. I've moved 4 times since then as well. I am so sad to leave our sweet friends on the team who have all just been so good to us. Thomas was really starting to feel at home in the locker room, and I've felt at home here since November thanks to the awesome group of Patriot's wives. We are so sad to leave our dear church, my job, and fall in New England.

Appropriately enough, I've been reading One Thousand Gifts and have been reminded of all that I have that I can thank my Heavenly Father for. Last year at this time, my husband had no job for 3 weeks. This year, he is guaranteed a job for 3 weeks. We are planning to keep our apartment here while we see how things shake out in Houston, and we'll just get a temporary place there for now. Houston does have Chick-fil-A, authentic Mexican food, and no blizzards. (There are wildfires raging now, but we won't get into that.) I fly to Texas tomorrow to see my sweet husband again, attend this weekend's game, and find a place to live.

Lastly, I will leave you with a few photos of Thomas' last game as a Patriot. His parents were able to come up for the game, and he ended his preseason on a good note and played his heart out. (Apparently Thomas didn't put his contacts in after the game. He seems to be squinting at some far-away object in all of the pictures. Or he was in a lot of pain, which is more likely.)