There's no place like home...

The packing has been begun. I started last week with the closets. First, I tackled the things we don’t use every day... purging as I went. I have to admit, this whole downsizing process is really causing me to take a look at all the little 'things' that I feel sentimental about. I was careful to pack only our most beloved books, wrap only our most precious keepsakes & finally got sidetracked by several boxes of old pictures. It was such an unexpected joy to sit cross legged on the floor & rifle through the memories those old photos evoked. I laughed at the pictures of Chuck & I in our dating years & stared misty eyed at those of our children when they were small… Josh in his first Halloween costume, his mouth stuffed with candy…  Caleb swimming in his first football uniform, sporting a toothless grin… & our little baby Hannah, sleeping peacefully in a basket… wrapped in a fluffy pink blanket. 

 When I finally came to the closet under the stairs I came across the growth chart Chuck began on the wall when our kids were five, thirteen & sixteen. 

 I was struck by how much they had grown over the past five years & it left me with a little pain in my chest. I wondered if leaving the house where they have spent much of their growing up years would change the way they view ‘home’? Would the shortage of bedrooms & smaller space make them feel un-welcome? Pretty soon it began to really bother me… a lot. 

Then on Saturday, the boys came home from college for the weekend & I noticed something. We hardly left the living room. We lay sprawled out, limb over limb, on our sectional, talking & laughing late into the night. 

Long after everyone else was in bed, I lay awake thinking… this house is not what binds us together. It’s the relationships. It's the time we have had & will spend together making memories. It’s as Sarah Dessen says in her book, What Happened to Goodbye… 

 “Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go.”