Pack it up and say goodbye

The night before closing was a little bittersweet. We’d been working so hard to get everything packed up and clean that whole week. That evening found us trapping chickens (we left some behind), wrestling a treadmill up the basement steps and taking the last few loads to the storage units.

We finally loaded our last trailer around 8:30 or so. In the 6 years we lived there we’d added 3 children and countless memories. I walked through each room checking for stragglers and remembering our time there.

I stopped in the hall office and looked at the walls and turquoise door. I remembered how grateful I was to be hired full time at ATI and have a ‘need’ for a home office. We painted it Thanksgiving weekend before I started full time and I smiled at how much we praised God for the blessing of that job…and how we continue to do so.

I walked in Lily’s room and saw the red footprints on the carpet by the closet door. Before she was born that room was our schoolroom. One afternoon some little boys found their way into my supply closet, opened the red paint and painted the wall. A little brother walked right through the paint on the closet floor and into the bedroom. There were still 3-4 Theo sized foot prints outside the door.

I stood in our master bedroom and thought of the tears we cried and joys we shared there. How we’d hugged each other tight after Kerry’s cancer diagnosis standing in the doorway. I thought of the 3 babies (Gideon, Theo and Lily) born in that room and smiled at the beautiful memories of their first cries echoing on those walls. I can still see the sun streaming in the windows as I labored with each one, hearing our midwives sitting at the desk talking.

I walked through our basement and chuckled at the thought of sucking water up with the shop vac when I was 7 months pregnant and it rained for days. Aunt Lucy and Uncle Chilsen outside helping drill holes in the sump pump barrels in the window wells two weeks after we’d moved in. I was grateful for the restoration of the basement and new carpet that took place a couple years ago after the ‘back up’ incident just before Christmas.

Our laundry room was always full and busy…my day wasn’t complete until the washing machine ran at least twice.

I stood the longest in the kitchen and living room. The heart of our home. I smiled as I thought of the first time we met our dear friends the Wallace’s. They came for dinner and stayed until bedtime. I remembered the joys of gathering our crew around the table and sharing our highs and lows of the day. I grinned and sighed, thinking we’d never again get a text from our neighbor Martha “Do you guys need some pickles/green beans/cucumbers?” Or “We need a judge…come get some of this meat and tell us which one you like best”. We had the best neighbors. 🙂

And the school lessons…I taught some of my boys to read their first words in that kitchen.

As I switched off each light, I thanked God for the blessings He’d given and prayed for the new family who would live here. We took our last laps around the yard and pond and thanked God for the memories around the fire pit and kayaking in the pond (ask Kerry about the killer tadpoles sometime).

We drove out of the driveway at peace and grateful for all the life we’d lived there. We headed west and on to a new chapter up on the hill, thankful for the doors God had opened to make our dreams become reality.

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