Saying Goodbye

This week, as we're packing up all the drapes, wall decorations, and everything else in our house but the kitchen sink, it's hard to deny that we're leaving this place. And it's going to be hard to say goodbye to our first house.

We started looking for houses when we had been married for about 8-9 months and bought this one just three months before our first anniversary. We picked it out of about 40 homes that we saw and pretty much knew after the first look that it was the one for us. And boy, have we loved living here. We've done so much work and decorating to this place to make it ours.

But more than fixing it up, we have made so many memories here. I never understood exactly what people meant when they said, "we brought our babies home to this house." But now I understand. When I look in the corner of our family room, I see the spot where we put Ethan's infant swing before he was born. And even now I can picture his sweet little face when he slept there as a newborn. When I look at the kitchen, I remember the fun and follies Casey and I had trying to drill holes for the cabinet hardware. And there's more where those came from. Ultimately, that's what makes leaving so sad...you feel like you're leaving the physical place that holds all these memories and that if you don't see these rooms anymore, you might forget what happened here. I know that is not true and I know that we will make our new home just as much ours and just as filled with our memories. But, for now, we have to say goodbye to our first house that we love.