And with our angels...: Easter Moving.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Easter Moving.

Today we celebrated Easter and as happy and excited as everyone was to celebrate that Jesus has risen, we also celebrate for the last time in our home. The home our children have only known us to have, the home that had created so many memories for us both good and bad, and the home that when we moved in we said we never thought we could out grow. Four growing and thriving children later, we've realized the time has come to make new memories in a new home.

Madelyn tries to help pack.

Or maybe I should say unpack.

It has been pretty emotional this process, much more than I ever thought it would be. As I packed away box after box, the memories from the time we got that toy, or went on that trip, or played in the backyard pool... all packed up not only in boxes but filed away in my mind.

Last night over dinner, we sat in our kitchen with a few boxes and mostly echoing walls, and reminisced. I asked the kids what has been their favorite memory from this house. It turns out, I am not the only one who couldn't narrow down a "best" moment. So many fun times. Like the first time we brought Gabriel and Michael home and they begged us if they could "Stay with you forever?" Or the memories of Christmas morning, them opening gifts and being so excited what had arrived under the tree for them. For Michael he liked the April fools prank I play on them annually, yet they never seem to remember when it comes to April 1.Here's the fun video from this year, yep Mom fooled them again.

For dad, it was the playing castle, or making forts, the first trips to building class, and first attempts at riding a bike without training wheels out in front of the house. Yes its fair to say we've grown up in this house over the past 10 years. All of us, not just the kids. After talking about our favorite memories I brought out this laptop after dinner and we all sat around the screen watching videos of some of our favorite memories. The kids loved it just as much as dad and I, and while it was mainly us that had to hold back the tears in the realization that time has gone too fast, the kids were touched too as they looked back on their life for the past 5 plus years.

Yes this house has been a great place for us to grow and become a family. We created many wonderful memories, it has been a place where we struggled together, and tried to overcome obstacles that life seems to throw each one of our ways. As we celebrate our final holiday in the home that really is the only place our "family" has known, there are mixed emotions. From Isabelle saying she doesn't want to move, to the boys begging us to find another place as soon as possible. As I pack up our final boxes, repaint walls with fingerprint stains and scratches from being lived in, I think of the next family that might come to make this place their home. And I hope that the clean, freshly painted walls will comes to record just as much joy and love as the walls recorded for us.

As I think about the blessings in my life and the joy that this home has given to me, I'm reminded that none of it is possible without the greatest sacrifice that was made for me, my children and my family. And it is because of that sacrifice, that I can find hope and joy that while my family may go onto build memories in a home with new walls, that our forever home is not here. Perhaps my heart will feel completely at home on the day when we are all reunited, when I can enjoy all my children in our eternal home, all five of them.

Until then, we will pack up our final boxes, put our faith in God's hands for what our next house may look like and smile as we think about new memories we will hopefully be able to create.