Dad helped me move to Wisconsin in August of last year, staying with me for about a week before flying home. From that point on, I was all alone.

It’s not like I wasn’t able to make friends here in Madison. My new church family and colleagues from work have been very welcoming. But my whole life, all my friends, my family, and all the familiar places up to that point had disappeared.

Anyone who once was such an important support in my life could only be reached through the tenuous and completely unsatisfying lines of communication of telephone and email. On a few nights I actually cried myself to sleep because of the loneliness.

In January, when Jessie and I got married and she moved out here with me, I completely forgot about how difficult those months of loneliness were for me, because I finally had Jessie to satisfy my need for social contact as an anchor to my past life. However, all at once she was in my shoes, having been ripped from friends, family, and everything familiar, and my attempts to comfort her insufficient.

At small group this week, Jessie opened up to the other girls and revealed how lonely she has been. Now, a funny thing about our church is that most of the congregation, much like Madison itself, are transplants, new in town and only here long enough to get that degree or finish that internship/fellowship.

Unbeknownst to her, all the other girls in small group, having moved here just recently, were extremely lonely too. All it took was for Jessie to break the ice, and now the church girls are planning a lot of future social events!

All this to say, we got together with a few other people from church to see a great concert last night. It’s really wonderful to see Jessie “back in her game”, enjoying being social with people again.

We have learned so much getting married, moving away from home, and starting grad school all at the same time. Learning how to deal with loneliness is yet another lesson we are learning together as we rely on one another, on our new community of friends here, and on Christ.