A Home is Where the Heart Is

Today we said farewell to our house that we've owned - with help from the bank - for the last 13 years.

There are a lot of good memories there. From first steps to first dates, from laughter to love, there are wonderful memories contained within those walls. Yes, there are sorrows, too, and any honest conversation will admit and own them...but not right now, please. Thanks be to God, He blessed us with each joy and carried us through each sorrow that we shared within the walls of our house and home.

When we arrived in the house in May, 2004, Alyssa was 6 1/2, Megan was 3, and we were BC, that is, Before Christopher, who arrived in December. Laura and I were only married seven years, but the move from an apartment off of Golf Club Drive into the house on Dover Cliff Court marked our 8th move. The longest we had lived in any place was the first two years of marriage when I was at Seminary; the shortest was 11 months for my vicarage (internship).

So, we joked, at first, that we should save the moving boxes because - given our track record - we would be moving soon. But as months turned into years, the boxes - with a dozen exceptions on the garage shelf - all disappeared and we made the house our home.

We adjusted with the arrival of our son. We adjusted again as the girls grew and each needed their own space. We adjusted again when our son needed his own space. Colors were changed. Layouts were adapted. Carpet was replaced - and so were three toilets (who knew toilet water tanks randomly crack in the middle of the night after 20 plus years of no problems? Me either...until it did!).

And, now it's time to adjust again. With a turn of the key as the dead-bolt thunked into place, we were done. And, taking a last look, I climbed into my car. Feeling a little like the Clampetts, with our cars' nooks and crannies stuffed tight,  I followed Laura, two kids and three cats down the driveway, out of the subdivision, and to the highway. 

As I write this, I am five hours gone from Dover Cliff Court in Crosby and I am about two hours into our new house on FM 236 in Mission Valley. It's the house we will be living in, and it will become our home - but it's not quite there, yet. As our things arrive tomorrow and get placed in the days ahead, that will help. As we get used to the new sounds and smells  (not bad smells, just different smells) that will help. And as the memories build, that will help, too.

And, God willing, this house will become our new home.