On a Monday night in May 2006, I headed to a guy's house for a first date. He told me to look for the Christmas lights on the deck and that would be his house. Yes, in May. As I walked in, I had no idea what memories would like ahead of me within those walls. If I had known what I know now, I would have remembered every detail of what I saw that night, not just those Christmas lights.
Before I knew it, I was at the house every night and when I told my parents I was thinking of moving there, they packed me up and gave me their blessing. The living room furniture was all black and there was no food in the fridge, but suddenly, it was home. I fell in love with that guy in that house. I bought red throw pillows for the black leather couches and put food in the fridge and it became ours instead of just his.
We hosted Christmas parties and had our parents over for dinners. We spent lazy weekends watching tv and cuddling on the couch. One day we both left that house and returned a married couple. We received the most exciting news of our lives on Memorial Day 2009 in that house, and I finally got to design the nursery I'd been envisioning since high school. Months later, we brought home our first baby on a rainy January day and showed him the place he would also call home.
Somehow we blinked and had 2 more babies who we brought home to that house. We soon realized that we had outgrown our living arrangements and would need to leave the place we had grown to love so much. It was a long and tough process, but our prayers were finally answered and everything fell into place.
In just a few short hours, we will leave this house and move on to bigger and better things. But a piece of my heart will always be here. My first home away from my parents, my first as a married woman, as a mother. The first home for all 3 of my babies; though it saddens me that they won't remember it. We've been incredibly blessed here- a location we love, family walks through the neighborhood, dance parties in the living room; watching the deer from the deck, summer dinners at the picnic table, neighbors who would do anything for us. I will miss it all beyond what words can express. I've been sad and crying for weeks now at the thought of this change.
But then tonight, we went for a walk through of our new home and the pure and utter joy on our children's faces as they ran from room to room made me remember why we are doing this. Every penny we've spent, every showing we prepared for, every second that we've put into this move is so totally worth it because they are worth it; we are worth it.
So yes, I'm going to cry when we prepare to leave in the morning. I will walk through every room and for one last time, take in every detail. I'll cry as we pull away one last time. But the tears won't last long, because our dreams are just 3.5 miles away.
