Thanks for the Memories & Making New Ones

These photos are of the last day at our old house, with our family in the center photo and another of Lauren and I with our dear friends, Julie and Leonard, who helped us immensely over the last few days of our move. Jack and Lucy stood by the back door for a quick snap, Eli was captured in a moving box and Maya shared a sweet smile on the last day she spent the night. Happy memories shared in a home that God created for us all.

Erin and Sara grew up in this house, with many birthday parties, sleepovers, prom dates and fun escapades in the back yard. We had graduation parties for them both as well as wedding festivities.

Jack was born while Erin and John lived with us, and Maya, Sara and Mark moved in with us for a few months when Maya was 4 months old.

The JEMS (Jack, Eli and Maya) spent the night, climbed the trees and played on the swingset.

They blew bubble and drew chalk on the sidewalks and rode bikes.

After all was done on the final day, I took a few photos of the empty house, and what surprised me was that I didn't cry over the empty rooms, but instead I cried as I "heard" the sounds of

LIFE

and my mind's eye relived the days and years of

 all of the things I mentioned that were tapestry of our lives.

And so, I say,

Thanks for the memories, dear old house,

for allowing us to make you ours throughout the nearly 28 years you sheltered us.

For making it through the many transformations we did to update you and yet

keep your integrity intact.

The photo that shows Lucy walking from the dining room to the living room seemed like it was her "good-bye." There are spots on the photo from the camera lens - not quite sure how they got there - maybe my tears, but I must say, seeing these photos a month later doesn't make me cry. They are reminders of God's blessings all of those years, and we now take more photos of our new cottage that I will share another time. We hope to move there in about a month, and we are getting more and more excited as we stop by and see the progress.

Here is a quick look...

the lot...

the foundation...

walls going up...

the porch, walls, roof and a little siding...

Sherwin Williams "Cottage Cream" paint going on...

Inside, the walls have been primed and so we hope to see a lot of progress

next week, as inside paint gets finished and maybe cabinets and appliances put in, maybe.

It is hard not to be wanting it to be done sooner than expected, but we realistically know that isn't always the case. But it will be finished and we will move in, God willing.

Until then, I will continue to visit your blogs, although having time to leave a comment is slim. I seem to be gone quite a lot instead of lazily lying on the sofa in our temporary home in Erin's basement, reading a book or something, but activity does make the days go by faster. It took me over a week to finish this post!

My friend Debbie just posted this on Pinterest, and it is so appropriate!!

(pinterest)