moving on: walks around the lake
In a few weeks we will pack up our things and move on. We will take pictures off the walls, books off the shelves, and carefully wrap up the memories of our lives to take to our new home. We've done this before, more than once, but never have we had wrinkled coloring pages and small little hand prints stamped on construction paper to take with us. Never have we left memories of bringing our newborn children home, or watching them stumble through their first steps across the floors we so carefully laid ourselves years ago. Never have we had so many tiny little clothes to neatly fold and take with us.
Our new house is perfect. Just enough space for our growing family, tall ceilings and open rooms, and customized to our liking. But when we leave our cozy little condo for the last time, we will leave behind five years of our lives. This is the first home we lived in as husband and wife, and the first home of our family. Five years of learning the challenges and commitment of marriage, five years of tears and kisses, of good times and bad. Our hearts are hidden behind each coat of paint, and our lives tucked away carefully in each cabinet and closet.
I have spent five years critiquing everything I've hated about this house... not enough bathrooms, rooms too small, ceilings too low... but now I can't seem to find a thing about it that I don't like. We poured sweat and tears into making this house our home.We have walked hand in hand around this lake countless times... first as a newlywed couple with endless hopes and dreams, then as new parents with bags under our eyes and gray in our hair, and most recently as a proud family of four looking toward the future. I will miss so many things about our first home, but mostly I will miss what this house stood for.
I will always remember Logan first learning to kick a soccer ball across the front lawn, and the look of joy on his face as he learned to run down the sidewalk to chase the dogs. I will remember the long days and nights we spent painting and nailing to transform an old, neglected house into a warm, cozy home. I will remember snuggling with my two favorite boys on a well-loved terracotta sofa with our sweet little girl wrapped safely in my arms. I will remember it all with a smile on my face.
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