Our Last Day

I really should be packing right now ... but I wanted to take a few minutes to record these last few thoughts here...

Last night we took the kids on the walk-through of the new house.  I wasn't sure how they'd do with the move - especially Calvin with his need for familiarity and routine.  But they were so excited and didn't want to leave.  Calvin had already packed his favorite cars in his backpack so he was sad when we told him we were leaving to come back to this house!  He can't wait to go!

At one point after we came back home, we all sat down together  for one last family devotion in this house.  During that time we shared memories we all had of our time here together.  It was all I could do to hold it together...  Even now every time I do something today  I think, "This is the last time I (we) will do ..."  Each thought brings tears to my eyes...

We have brought 5 precious babies home to this house ... lots of hours spent feeding, rocking and loving on those babies... first steps, first words, many, many firsts...  I remember holding Coleman in his room just crying thinking of the blessing of having a child.  I had no idea then how hard parenting would be ... many prayers for grace have been offered up here...

Most of the kids have learned to ride bikes here...

We've had hurricanes take out trees, mailboxes and our bedroom ceiling...

Many hours have been spent playing in this back yard...

There have been good times and bad, laughter and joy, as well tears of all kinds.  There also have been many moments that I wish I could do over again ... but all of these things have molded us and shaped us.  It has been encouraging to look back and see the evidence of God's grace in our lives ...

As one chapter ends, another begins and we know that we will be making new memories and pray for God's grace to continue to sustain us through this next season...

Our First Home!

 We purchased our first home back in May of 1999.  This is a picture of the drawing they had in the realtor's office!  We were so excited!

We were able to watch them build it from the ground up!

 

 

 

 That's me back in the day!

 Yes, that's Brian - he had hair then!  ;)

 This picture cracks me up!  I was so excited about that bath tub - no jets but that was ok!

 I didn't crop out the truck because that was Brian's pick-up that we had forever - like for almost 200,000 miles I think?!  There's my little Sentra in the garage - the only car we could fit in there - the car that we outgrew pretty quickly!  And look at those little teeny shrubs!

Here it is today!  We closed in the garage to make a playroom/bonus room.  Several trees are gone (thanks to several hurricanes), the shrubs have grown and thousands of memories have been made.

Just a few weeks ago we took the steps to purchase a bigger home for our growing family and now our time here is coming to a close.  I didn't think I would be too sentimental about it but I was mistaken.  Don't get me wrong - we are so excited about our new space and the new memories we will make there as a family but it is still sad to be leaving our first real home!  

I hope to write down a few of our memories during the next few days so that we won't forget!