telling the children and family we're moving away

What seems an age ago my wife went through the discernment process to work out whether she had a calling to the priesthood.  
I'm told different Diocese do this in different ways.  In our diocese the process consisted of a series of extended chats.  After a particularly testing chat I well remember a midnight conversation at home where she was seriously questioning her calling.  

But we got though that. Then came the acceptance from the authorities that they agreed with her sense of being called to ministry.  With that came agreement to put her onto a theological degree so she could become a full time paid priest.  Fortunately for us we didn't have to move for that either.

Both of these stages  - discernment and education - required changes to our family life.  She necessarily focused more of her attention outside the family.  I necessarily had to focus more of mine into it and our home. 

Then came the bit where the Diocese started to suggest where she might go to be a curate. Her details were sent out to a prospective church.  If the incumbent liked what they read the process moved onto a visit.

I had the easy bit as I just had to go along to the prospective parishes with the wife.  This involved her being sussed out by the incumbent and shown around a bit whilst I occupied myself elsewhere. I'd then often join her for a meal with some of the great and good from the church.  These meals could be a bit weird.  The ones I attended were informal meals with people you've never met before.  But there's also an element of them checking both of you out and getting some of your backstory.  I managed to behave.  The wife got offered a job and so we knew where we were moving to.

But the hardest thing I've been through by a long chalk was telling our two teenage daughters that we'd be moving out of the area they'd grown up in.   Of course there were tears.  And truly anguished and plaintive questions asking why couldn't my wife just get a post nearby.  

Part of the answer to that was that it wasn't an option on offer.  But the other half of the answer was she wouldn't have wanted to do that anyway  (and I agreed with her).

I'm not sure if one of them has completely forgiven my wife for the soon to be move. (Even though it truly was a joint decision).  At the time one daughter suggested options where they stayed in our home area or did a long commute from the new home back to their existing school.  All of these options were pretty unrealistic. And gradually they were let go of as the reality of the move became apparent (events like being interviewed for entry into a school in the area we're moving to helped).

Time as always will be a healer of some sort.