I have sat down and tried to write this blog post at least a dozen times. Every time I get stuck trying to find the right words. To get to the point – our family is moving. After six years in Ottawa we are heading back home to the West Coast. While I am very excited to be back close to our families, the ocean and the mountains, I am really struggling with saying goodbye to the city of Ottawa and more importantly the people in it.

We moved to Ottawa in 2014 when my husband began his medical residency in emergency medicine. I had a one year old son at the time, and was pregnant with my second. The city was totally new to me. I had never even visited Ottawa before. Slowly but surely I got to know my way around. I went out of my way to try new things, visit new places, hike new trails and especially experience those quintessential Ottawa elements that were so foreign to a Vancouverite like me (sugar shacks and skating on the canal to name a few!). I was delighted to find it was relatively easy to make new mom friends as everywhere I went people were so warm and welcoming! Before long I had built an amazing “village”. Friends who became more like family. Little did I know just how important that village would become.

My village stepped up for me during the hardest days of my life. As many of you blog followers know my family underwent some very difficult losses in 2017. A twin pregnancy lost when one twin miscarried at 16 weeks and then a devastating diagnosis that would lead to the other twin, my son Lachlan, being born still at 38 weeks. Throughout this time my village never stopped showing up for me. Accompanying me to appointments, watching my older kids, bringing food and providing hugs and a listening ear always. My village grew to include Roger Neilson House and the staff there, who provided our family with guidance and support when we needed it most. It also expanded to include the team behind the Ottawa Butterfly Run, fellow loss parents, who gave me support and a focus for channeling my grief into something positive. All of these people make up the village that makes leaving Ottawa the hardest thing. I feel like I am leaving behind a piece of my heart.

I started this blog in 2016. A few friends had been encouraging me for a while to start blogging. I loved the idea of getting to write but I didn’t consider myself an expert in any field. If I blogged about crafts or recipes or any kind of parenting tips I thought I would feel like a fraud. I love to bake but I’m certainly no expert with any original recipes. And you want tips on getting your kids to sleep? Ha! Laughable! I haven’t slept a full night in years and the bags under my eyes are probably permanent at this point. But then one friend suggested I write about the activities I do with my kids around the city. Though I was still new to Ottawa, I felt like this was something I could actually speak about. I may not be the trendiest mom, or the mom with all the answers, but I do love getting out with my kids and enjoying everything the city has to offer. Apple picking? Heck yes! Santa Claus parades? I want to see them all! And so, Embracing Ottawa was born.

I have been humbled to see how this blog has grown over the past three and a half years. To date, the blog has had more than 350 thousand views. I’m blown away by that. But, at the end of the day this blog was about building community and that is what I am most proud of. This blog and you, its readers have become a part of my village.

While I always knew my husband’s medical residency would eventually end (even when it felt like it never would), and that he would look for a job back out West, I certainly never foresaw our final months in Ottawa playing out like this. This pandemic has robbed us of precious time we wanted to spend with the people and places we love. My kids said goodbye to their school, teachers and classmates without any of us realizing that would be the last time they would all be together. I will most likely have to leave Ottawa without giving the hugs and quality visits I would desperately love to dole out to my friends. And of course, our hope of spending as much time as possible at our favourite museums, playgrounds, and pools has just slipped away.

Moving also means that Embracing Ottawa will also be coming to an end. A poem titled “The Hollow Men” by T.S Eliot has been running through my head recently (thanks to grade 11 English Lit for that). It reads “this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.” While the world is certainly not ending, my blog is and it feels like I will not get to close it out in the way I would have wanted. My popular, weekly event listings just petered out as the cancellations piled up and we were forced to retreat into our homes to stay safe. Like I said, this is not how I foresaw us spending our final months here in Ottawa.

The list of things I will miss about Ottawa is long: from tubing at Jacques Cartier Parque and skating the canal during Interlude, to anything off the menu at Art is In, seeing the gorgeous fall colours cover the city every autumn, snow on the ground (nearly) every Christmas, the Northern Lights show projected agains Parliament, the coffee and play area for kids at Wild Child Coffee, the great wading pools in the city parks, visiting a sugar bush, hiking in Gatineau Park, grabbing an ice cream cone at the Beachconers and then working off that ice cream at my favourite Mommy Bootcamps, exploring all of the amazing museums the capital has to offer…I could obviously go on for a long time. Most of all I will miss the feeling of community the City of Ottawa offers. There is a small town feel to this beautiful place that has allowed me to connect in a special way through this blog.

I have had some people ask whether I would consider handing over Embracing Ottawa to someone else. I’ve thought about it, but the blog is so personal to me and my family that I couldn’t let someone else take the reins under the current heading. However, I encourage anyone who might be interested to create one of their own! This isn’t meant to be my final post either. There are still things I hope to share with you all before I close this chapter – including any worthy adventures from our cross Canada move this summer (we are planning on driving out to Vancouver with the three kids…we might be nuts. We may not even survive).

Finally, I just want to express my thanks. Thank you to my readers, thank you to the local businesses who have supported me, and thank you to all of the friends who have become my family in a city where I had none. Thank you Ottawa.