Seasonal Walls

Emily's feet that learned to walk in these halls - 2007

Bob and I have been toying with the idea of moving versus building on to our home for quite some time now.  As our family has grown we have realized a need for more space.  Though we have a gorgeous yard full of perfect climbing trees and space to run around, including woods that the kids have spent many hours of imagination play time in, inside we are getting cramped.  As we have prayed and weighed all of the options, moving seems to come out on top each time.  Though I am hesitant to take on such a task, it seems that this is what our path may be for now.

As the reality of moving out of this home that I have lived in for over a decade sinks in, nostalgia starts to take over my thoughts.  This home is the longest I have lived in any one place in my entire life.  We moved much of my childhood and I was in a different school most years until my sophomore year of high school.  It had become hard for me to stay in a home long without looking to move within a year and this was the first place that I was content enough to stay.  I have realized though, that it is not the walls that have given me this contentment, but rather the people within them.

The walls.  These walls have heard and seen so many things in the last eleven years.  Three children have learned to walk in this home, two have never known anywhere but this as home.  There have been numerous game nights, baking adventures and movie nights.  We have hosted numerous birthday parties, picnics and Christmas Eve family nights.  Santa has come to find us at this location for 11 Christmases.  The pantry doorway has markings dating back to 2003, when Alex was 3 and Abby 1, with measurements of their heights.  A third set was added in 2008 for Emily.  The markings go until present and currently Alex’s section spans over 30 inches.  Do you think the new owners would mind if we took the door frame with us? 

Abby's 2nd birthday - 2004

While all the memories start to hit me hard in the heart, even before we have put the for sale sign up, I know that this season is ending and a new one is in store for us.  If this is the right path for us, the house will sell and we will find a new home perfect for our growing needs.  We will have new memories, new game night locations and new trees to climb. Maybe we will get a bigger kitchen for more baking adventure and I am fairly certain we will have a new door frame for measurements.  Things will never be the same, but if they were it would make all of our memories less meaningful.  So now we move on to new walls, new memories and a new season.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a  time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;  a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. - (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

Alex and Abby out front - 2005