Home is...

Moving homes is such a strange thing.

When you think about the word "home" for most it is a source of comfort & joy & memories.  My first flashes of home go right to my parents house and piles upon piles of memories that make up my life.  My first day of kindergarten to getting ready for my wedding to bringing my babies there to see there Gigi.  But it also is about your surroundings.  The colors on the walls that stand up around you and protect from the chill of a cold night or hold frames with smiling faces of your lovies.  Comfy couches to sink into when your are tired or sad or need a place to think.  Knicks and bruises that you've added along the way that make the place less perfect ascetically but some how more perfectly home.

In our garage.  I was spray painting a frame and just had baby griffin with me out playing on a nice day and this just make it up on the wall in there!

  

Then you move.  You take all of the "you" out of the space and it's back to just being walls.  And it reminds you that paying a mortgage and painting and cementing things down doesn't make anything more "ours".  

We moved this week.  And it closed a chapter in my life.  5.5 years of solid living, in a house on Geneva Lane.  In it we navigated moving to a new city and started life over, we worked tirelessly to fix up a house, we tried to figure out parenting and have (mostly) survived, we brought home two more babies, went through a miscarriage, celebrated birthdays and promotions and anniversaries, we laughed and cried and screamed at each other.  We made a life.  It's been a good, bad, wonderful and ugly chapter...the best kind because there's a little of everything in there.  I smile as I close the door.  I can't believe it's already over because as clear as day I can remember sitting in it empty with Griffin in his infant carrier watching Ryan prep the walls to paint.  Now, I have 3 kids and my "baby" is almost too big for that very car seat.  There were a few tears as I said goodbye to the place that housed the foundation to the family we now have.  But mostly there are smiles because that chapter was so good.  And it was so hard and we were up for the challenge.  We didn't get it right every time, that's for sure, but we muddled our way through it.  It was crazy to leave it and as I looked around it empty once again I was just honestly overwhelmed with thankfulness at the life God provided for the time spent between those walls.  And so glad I get to take all that happened with me as I move forward.

Oh, and about the moving forward part...I am thrilled.  I keep pinching myself.  Everyday I find delight in a new drawer or closet light.  There's lots of great parts about our new abode, but our favorite among all parties in our family is the close range of our dear friends the Micks who can now reach our house by bike and are close enough to walk to if we need to borrow and egg or cup of sugar.  God has already provided so richly as we start this new chapter.  I shouldn't be surprised, he is in the business of knocking my socks off with "good" but I truly am thankful beyond words.  The timing, the place, the people...I give him a standing O!  Mostly I am happy that I am reaffirmed with the fact that HOME to me is a word meaning Ryan, Abbi, Griffin, Sawyer & Crosbi and where the walls are up around is secondary.  I will say though that I am pretty fond of these walls we got going on now.  We need a new coat of paint in a few spots and then I'd say I wouldn't mind staying for a year...or 10 or more!  But I'll leave that up to the big guy.

My awesome girlfriends who hosted a play date in the empty house so I could get some things done!  What would I do without them???

In summary: moving is a lot of work, God is good, I am so tired, I would recommend having your mother and sister in law come to help with your kids if you are moving (this was a God send) ***Big THANKS to Lori and Kelly...we have the best family***, friends who are neighbors and neighbors who are friends are the best, God's plans really do have better outcomes than I could ever scheme myself and HOME is where ever I am with these faces...

I love them.  I love our new house.  I love God.

I'll post pics of the new casa soon....when everything has gone through on the short sale and it is for sure our home:)!!