Ode to our little house
When we found this perfect little house for our family, we couldn't imagine the love that would grow within these walls.
We moved here with two little toddling twins, whose little feet padded through the house in zip up pajamas, on the verge of turning two years old. Our first big event in the house was celebrating their little lives. And from there the memories compounded.
Our house has been a safe place full of love and welcoming to everyone as family. In our home it has never mattered where you've been, what you have or have not done, or how you got to where you are - When you entered our door, you were loved as family because you are our family.
Our family had an extra mom when we first moved in. Miss Amy came every day and loved on our babies, kept them safe taught them so many, many things. Until she left us forever, she was a special member of this house.
This house greeted our furry member when the twins three. And it has endured her fur balls for almost fifteen years. Muddy paw prints, torn up toys, and barks at strangers...and Mike. She's never been one to miss barking at him.
This house welcomed new life when we got to bring home a cute baby with orange stripes in his hair and long little feet. A perfect little addition to our home. Loved through some rough days into the feisty, mustached teen of today.
Tonight I have remembered so many good memories. Even the sad ones and the hard ones are marked with loved. They all include the people we call family. Christmas eves, birthdays, Easters, and regular summer days... filled with laughter, noise, and smiles. Smells of popcorn on the stove, fires in the backyard, cookies baking in the oven.
This year this house was where those twins of ours said farewell to high school, welcomed acceptance letters to colleges. and made plans for the tomorrows of their lives.
So many thoughts and memories washing over me. I hope those memories never fade, and that as we move into a new chapter of our lives, that some things will not change.
I want our home to always be a safe space. A place you can come to, without judgement, to be loved. I hope our home is always open to make memories in, to smile in, and to greet laughter and joy. My prayer is that everyone who enters our home feels like family. Because you are our family.
Thank you, God, for blessing this house with all those things, and I beg that the next home might be a richly blessed.
Goodbye little house - you've always been the perfect size for all of this. Thank you for your service to our family.
Sarah I cried as I read this and thought of all the memories I have of this house.. this house I was in many years before you all bought it. It contained a ton of love then, and just as much with our family. The dinners, the get together, the shared Christmas mornings, the birthdays, the mother's day dinners, the food the kids learned to cook and the calendars on the wall, the crafting, the family photos, the kids bedrooms, the amazing way you took advantage of every square inch, the swing set, the garden, Mitch's fire ring, the house the kids were going to live in, the tree that Abby was going to build a house in and live there forever... I could go on and on and on... but mostly, the love that always opened the door and embraced the family member every time they entered and the time you always took no matter how busy you were to make us all welcome... I know that will go with you. I know it was packed in each box that left those doors. I pray that the family coming in finds a good "starter" of that very same love and welcome and hospitality as they move in... <3
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