This week we say good-bye to our home for the past 7 years...we say good-bye to the first house Justin and I bought...the 1st home to both of our kiddos...the home where I finished my Masters Degree to teach...and where 5 years later I would gladly give up that gig for a new one as stay-at-home mama to Blake and Claire...it is the home where Blake and Claire performed all of those "1st milestones" that a parent aches to see in the 1st 2 years of life...it is where I got to see my little boy go to school for the first time...it is where we "cut our teeth" on house projects and improvements (getting better with time I would say) ;)....it is where we found our church family...it is where we kept and maintained old friendships and cultivated new ones...it is where we have celebrated and cried....it is where we lived.
I have wondered when it would "hit me" that 16101 is no longer where we live, when I would understand that probably only Blake will remember this place in adulthood and only those will be faint memories ones that he will grasp on to mostly through the stories Justin and I tell. It has been too busy up until now for me to really focus on, I thought maybe during packing-but even then it was busy...it happened as I was doing my final clean of this place-the last time I will mop these floors and vacuum this carpet is when I took a moment to be sad and to reflect on the life we have got to live here.
What a blessing this life has been-not without struggle or heartache but truly an amazing blessing and gift. I will miss these walls and the comfort they brought to our family. But I trust that as we move forward Jesus has good things planned for our family-there is a new home ready for us to make memories and messes in.
I leave with this thought. Buying this home was is one of the decsions that Justin and I both together felt strongly like Jesus was telling us to do....and our life has been wonderful here-better than I could have imagined. And now, leaving this home is another one of those times where both Justin and I know that Jesus is telling us to do this...it spurs me on and instills faith that what is to come will be wonderful...different yet wonderful.
