Our House, In the Middle of Our House...[is love]

Our House, In the Middle of Our House...[is love] 1

When the day comes for us to walk out of our empty house and close the door, I know I'll cry.

I won't cry for the four walls, for the incredible mountain view, for the backyard that we worked on so hard, for the shiny appliances (okay, maybe I will cry for the washer + dryer...), or for the 1789 square feet.

I'll cry because of the MEMORIES. All of the life that has happened here. The profound happiness.

Our House, In the Middle of Our House...[is love] 2I'll remember long talks with Tim in our master bedroom and out on the grass. Being intertwined in his arms on our white comforter.

I'll remember holding my firstborn baby on the porch swing, staring at her perfect rosebud lips, kissing her tiny toes - delirious from sleeplessness and joy.

I'll remember the pitter-patter of little feet on the tile floor, the sound of laughter echoing in our great room, the spaghetti-faced grin at the dinner table.

Our House, In the Middle of Our House...[is love] 3I'll remember the peace of bringing baby #2 home from the birth center, of sleeping all together the very same night that I had her.

I'll remember "toy parties" in the girls' bedrooms, rolling peanut butter balls, sleeping on mattresses on the floor, reading chapter books at bedtime, carrying babies on my hip all day long. The neediness. The wonder. The magic. Of these days.

Our House, In the Middle of Our House...[is love] 4Even so, it's not really the house that brings a lump to my throat, that keeps making me catch my breath. It's the LOVE here (Oh, the remarkable, radiant love in this house!) and the MEMORIES.

The truth is, though, that we'll bring those things with us into our little RV. Because they're safely stored in our hearts.

I'll definitely cry when I stand in the middle of our empty house that last time, when I close the door tightly behind us.

But I also know that this closed door will lead to many other doors. This is just the beginning.

https://youtu.be/yOd3so0J3u4

How many times have you moved in your adulthood? If you had to move today, would you have a hard time leaving your house behind?

P.S. Want to buy our house?

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38 comments on “Our House, In the Middle of Our House...[is love]”

  1. We have been renting this house for almost 3 years now. We are in the process of buying a home and are very excited to be homeowners again. Because we were renting, this never truly felt like home...but I will still be a little sad to leave it because of the memories. This is the first house my oldest daughter will remember. This is the house I brought my youngest daughter home to. This is the house where we lived during the amazing toddler years - such a wonderful time.

    We are excited about our new home because it is much more our style/taste and the layout suits how we live (open floor plan). But also because it is a sign that we are committed to staying here now and putting down roots. We've felt rather transient since moving to TN and always kind of hoped we might end up back in PA with family. But it isn't meant to be and that is okay.

  2. We haven't moved that much....our biggest "move" was to Edinburgh...and that was temporary...scary...uncertain...but so worth it. In the end I didn't want to come "home" but yet I wanted to kiss the ground when we landed in Atlanta...

    When we finally bought our home and moved into it from the 1 bedroom apartment it was nothing but sheer relief to finally call the place home. I would be sad to leave....but home to me is my family...our memories....

  3. Stephanie, this post made me a bit teary. You expressed it so beautifully - we've moved so many times, I've lost count but what matters is LOVE and being together. The more time goes by, the less patience i have for "stuff" and accumulation etc. You are such an inspiration and we are praying for your house to sell - full asking price!

    1. Thank you for your prayers, Sarah! The housing market isn't great in our area (or in our country) right now, but...I know God is BIGGER than my worries. And I know, with full confidence, that He is GOOD.

  4. I can't buy your house, but I would love to take that washer & dryer off your hands. :)

    I'm just now catching up with the computer after being out of town for a couple of weeks, and I have to say what you're about to do is AMAZING! Thanks for letting all of us follow you on your adventure.

  5. We moved around in the beginning of our marriage to an apartment and then to a few rentals while our house was being built. Since our kiddos have been born, we have been in our house. Even though I would love to move to a bigger house, I know that I would cry if we moved out. The "dashes" on the door to show the growth of our son, the area where our daughter took her first steps, the backyard and play house we have spent hours in...but those memories will go with us where ever we are. Just like yours...

    You guys live in a great area...I know that it won't take long for your house to sell! Even though it will be sad to see you go, I know that there is amazing things in your journey ahead!

  6. best of luck with the move & housing selling. i have only moved once (before i was renting so that doesn't count). I actually did not miss my first house even though that was the house we brought my first baby home to (but i did miss our fenced in back yard!)..sor far we are in our second house for one year..we already know that this is not our final house (which is weird to say)so i am sure we will be moving again in 5 more years..

  7. My husband and I haved lived in our house since 2003, and while I KNOW that we would be happy anywhere as long as we have our family, my sentimental emotions take over when I think of moving. I remember the moments that are so big, like bringing home our son for the first time. My parents recently moved from the spacious, 3 level home that I grew up in to a smaller, more manageable home. I thought I would cry when they moved out, but I was so at peace. I knew that God was guiding them to move for a reason, and I knew that the memories are, like you said, permanent in our hearts.

  8. Scott and I got married in 2001. Since then we've lived in 4 house in Utah, 1 house in Kentucky and 2 houses in Michigan. The first house was the home I grew up in. It was strange leaving it. The hardest house to leave was Kentucky especially because I wasn't even there when it was packed up and the keys were given to the new owners. That was our first home that we owned together. It was where we defined our family. But in the end, it was just a house and our home is where ever we land.

    I'm so jealous of your adventure. I think you will have a blast and face a lot of challenges that will only make you closer.

  9. Stephanie, Aaron and I have moved several times in adulthood. We tend to up and sell everything. So, every time we've moved, physically and logically it gets easier, but emotionally it's always hard. We are going to be moving in with our in-laws towards the end of the month, then moving to Seattle in June, two moves in less then 10 months. It'll be hard emotionally, but stuff doesn't mean much these days. ;)

  10. 3 of our 4 children have been born in the house we live in right now - that alone will make it sad to move someday!

    You all have such a great adventure ahead! In some ways I'd love to do what you're doing. :)

  11. I've moved a handful of times. I've never liked it, but I just hate packing stuff up! This last move though was the saddest. Levi and I had made such a home out of the house next door to my parents. Even though our move was for super wonderful and happy reasons, it still hurt to leave. I imagine it will be the same when we leave this home one day.

  12. It IS difficult, isn't it? My husband and I moved three times before we had children....and once since then. In other words, we left the house that our son was born in to move into a bigger house, our current house, so that there would be room for his little sister.

    It was only across town, but I drive past that little house at least once a month. Just to see it. The memories flood back!

    One thing that has helped us hold on to memories of our homes is frame them -- my dad is an artist and rendered our houses in pen and ink, which he framed and we now have hanging in our main hallway. I can "see" them every day. :)

  13. My husband and I have moved 6 times in our 4 years together, but the only time I had to fight though my emotions was when we left our apartment. Jeff was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer the same month our son was born, he had to leave work to undergo chemotherapy and we had to leave the only home my son had lived in to go stay with Jeff's mother. I cried my eyes out the day we turned the keys in, I had to force myself to leave the empty nursery, it was very hard.

    After 4 months of living with his mother, Jeff was approved for disability and we are now proud homeowners, our son has his own room and we have another baby on the way...and he/she will have their own room too. In the end Jeff is cancer-free and we are better off now than we ever were before. He is actually getting ready to return to work for the first time in over a year.

    Good things come from the emotionally challenging parts of life.

  14. You should try to get a discount on an RV since you will likely be in the media spotlight in many places, it will be free advertising for w/e brand you buy.

  15. So sweet! A house is not a home without the 'family' in it. I guess since we've always been renters (moving every 2 years for the past 12 years), it's never that hard for me to move on. The settling in is much harder for me because I immediately ponder how long we'll be staying put each time. But, as we prepare to move in 2 weeks, I can say that we've had SO MANY ecstatic memories in this current home of ours. And on the top is having our latest babe in our bedroom with all of us there for the experience. I was just thinking about how from age 2-5 a child can make so many memories about their home/house. It's such an intimate time for them to remember back to...light switches, corners, the way light falls in a certain room at a certain time of day. It's all such a beautiful part of this thing called life. Good luck to you guys on the sale process. I'm thinking positive thoughts for you.

  16. I so hear you. My husband and I bought out house just a few months after we were married. We were also just a couple of months pregnant as well. We are selling our house now. We really cannot afford the mortgage payment but this house has so many memories in such a short time. We have remodeled parts of this house, we bought both daughters home from the hospital in this house and it is just hard. I am crying as I type this. I don't want to sell it but I do. It has SOOO many memories but it is an old house that I wish we had the money to fix up but we don't. Our favorite part of the house is the huge beautiful yard - almost 1 acre and the house sits on the very edge so it is bigger than it seems. The girls love, love, love playing outside in the sandbox, on the trampoline or in the tire swing. We are literally on an island created by 2 streams or rivers - where you have to cross a bridge to get it to it. But as we put it we bought our dream house too early in life and I keep telling myself one day we will own a beautiful house on a beautiful lot again.

    The house is under contract and due to sell in about a month.

    I have to remember that a house is only a sticks and bricks and what not but a home is truly

  17. I've moved 2 times in my adult life, the last time being 2 summers ago. That was a hard move. My husband and I bought that house and we had to remodel basically the whole house, and we did it ourselves. It wasn't a great house (like we have now), it wasn't in a great neighborhood (like where ours is now), it wasn't what we wanted for our family long-term (again, like we have now). But, it was SO HARD leaving it and I find myself driving by it often just to take a peek. Moving is never easy but you are right--the house itself isn't what matters, its the memories that will last you a lifetime house or not.

  18. My husband and I moved 11 times in our first three years of marriage. We have sort of promised ourselves that for the next three we would stay put. It has been wonderful (almost one year in one place!!!) and we are so grateful to be putting down some roots. Right now, our house doesn't mean much sentimentally to me, altho, every time we have moved, that lump has been there. Each time I mop the floor one last time, memories play through my mind and I am a little sad.
    Hoping your house sells quickly!

  19. I can't IMAGINE doing what you're doing. I could leave my house in a second if I liked where I was going. I mean, I love my house. I loved my last house too, and it was the antithesis of this house, and I was sad, but I didn't cry because I knew what awaited me was better for us at the moment.

    But doing what you're doing would be much harder. Even though I KNOW you are excited about what's ahead. It would be hard to give up a home you love to live in an RV, even though RVs are really cool these days. :-)

    Still, I know you are going to have no regrets. :-)

  20. We just celebrated the one-year anniversary of selling our old home and buying our new one. I completely understand your feelings. When I did one last walk-through before I closed the door on our old home for good I thought I was doing pretty good. No tears just smiling. Then I saw the bathtub. And for some reason that ignited a flood of memories and emotions and I started bawling. Remembering first baths and playtime and singing and laughing and clean, fresh baby skin. I guess bath time is a big deal in our house. At any rate, that's what did it for me. But one year later and our family has made new memories in a new place and we're just as happy and joyful. Home really is where the heart is.

    Good luck to you and I can't wait to hear about all your adventures!

  21. I LOVE that video! So cute! My kiddos love to spin around and around and around. I used to call it 'dizzying' when I was a kid. Analise just started saying, "Mom! Watch me do my dizzying!". I have been on my own since I was sixteen, so I have moved a fair amount of times, however since I have been married, I have moved only two times...we have been fortunate enough to live in a place that works for our family and for our finances right now. Although...we are here in Germany and heading to Austria tomorrow...every time we are here we talk about moving. Some day. Maybe.

  22. I've moved so many times I can't even count them all. We've lived here the longest, 4 years, but I can't wait to move again. 700 square feet just isn't cutting it for a family of 4. I also think home is where you make it and that we will have good memories from this place too.

  23. I've moved a few times since having my own family. I feel like I have grown roots with this house and God is in the midst of teaching me a lesson about this earthly house. I have placed a lot of value on this house, the memories it holds and the future that awaits in it. Yet, it is just a "thing" and if it gets in the way of me seeing that what God has in store is soooo much better, then I am better off in a place that doesn't distract my focus.

    Sorry, to get all "preachy" but this truly is a lesson being taught to me as we speak.

  24. I've moved so many times in my life that I remember songs and news events by where I was when I first heard them. I'm really good at guessing the dates of things in trivia games because of this! :) I wonder how that would work in a moving home (RV)... Hmmmm, something to contemplate...

  25. awwww such a sweet lil video! love that!!

    you know, I've moved loads since "becoming" an adult...but we haven't settled down yet, or formed any roots.

    however, my parents still live in the house that we grew up in. I remember being too small to reach the light switch - I really do! The homes that memories are made in are always special. Have you heard that song, "The House That Built Me" by Miranda Lambert? It's amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQYNM6SjD_o

  26. {the video is precious. thank you for that peek into your life!}

    I say to my husband all of the time that I'll cry when we move from this home. In fact, when I think about moving I cry now.

    The memories that this home holds within its four walls mean more to me than most anything else in life. Next to the actual relationships of my family, and God, my memories make me who I am.

    And you'll make new, totally awesome ones in this next chapter of your life, but I totally get what you are feeling right now.

    Love you!

    Nell

  27. We've moved six times in the last six years, I'm ready to have a little patch of land to call ours and keep. The hardest thing for me to leave is always the garden, but then it's the planting of one that makes the sweet memories.

  28. Aw, it is so hard because of the sweet memories, but you're right they will always be with you! I've moved a couple of times and hope to one more time in the near future. Good luck selling your house! :)

  29. Good luck selling your home! I have moved around quite a bit, but plan on staying in this home for a while. A long while.
    Best of luck to you!

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