Traumatizing your children

Our kids are so confused. That has become apparent these past couple of weeks with comments from Kaden that I will tell in a minute. As he started to make all of these comments we reflected back on the past few months of our lives and tried to see it from the poor kids' perspective. We drive to Florida, spending each night in a different place. We get to Florida, and move into their temporary housing which is like a bigger hotel, and Kaden tries to ask "so we are staying here for a long time?" and we answer "well, kind of, for a few months anyway, only not really because we are staying for 10 days and then moving across the street into a 4 bedroom. . . " So we are there for just over 3 months and then start the drive to VA where we stay in a hotel and then in the TLF in VA for about 9 days. The first whole day we are in VA, we start taking the kids around to look at houses so we can find one to rent. We find the one we want and are pretty sure we will rent, but keep looking at other houses, too, just to make sure. Then we sign a lease. Every day we come to this house to do things and tell the kids this is where we are going to live for a long time. . . but not yet. . . we are going back to the TLF for a few more nights until the movers bring our stuff. The first day we were in Virginia, and we had dragged the kids around all day and they were ready to go "home" (but where was that?), Kaden said something like "I wish we could move somewhere for forever". That made me feel kind of sad. And then every day while we were waiting for our household goods, he was so confused and would say when we got to the house "so is this the one we are staying at for 3-5 more nights?". Noah is old enough to really understand and comprehend, but how traumatic and confusing for Kaden and Ammon, especially Kaden because he is on the verge of understanding and is trying, while Ammon is still young and just going with the flow. And Micah seemed unaffected by everything, but since we have moved in, he must sense this is home because he is suddenly sleeping much better. We are so glad to be here and moving in and having more of a sense of permanence!