late January 2015
I am enjoying my first homebrewed cup of coffee in our new house. It is in a travel mug, largely because that was the first coffee delivery vessel I encountered when opening the box that my mother quite thoughtfully labeled, "Coffee mugs". But also because the mountains of boxes surrounding me indicate that this will be a large coffee kind of day.
The kids and I have stayed home from church. I know God understands the enormity of picking up one's entire existence and moving it even just 20 minutes away. In the last few days, I have been offering prayers of thanks up as often as I've had a chance to stop for a minute and look around and breathe. I gave thanks for the house on Fostertown Lane where our little family essentially began. I remember our first time touring it with a three month old Mikey tucked into a fleece pouch on my chest. I remember the excitement and hope we felt as we explored all its rooms: "Mikey will sleep there, and that will be the guest / sewing room." And the jubilation we felt when we found out our offer -- which we'd feared to be too low -- was accepted. I remember painting the larger of the two bedrooms, so we could Mikey into it to share with his impending baby brother. I remember bringing that little Joey home and snuggling with him in a mayawrap ring sling on the couch. Watching Mikey learn how to be a big brother and learning the particular joy that a loving sibling relationship brings to both the children and their mother. Cuddling with my boys. Building forts out of couch cushions. Playing with play-doh on the dining room table and cursing as I picked it out of the carpet later. I gave thanks for the home to which we brought home our darling tiny Cecilia Grace and we all got to learn the particular joy that a little girl brings into a home. Watching them all take their first steps across the living room. Sitting in the glider and rocking them all to sleep. Reading The Cat in the Hat and Where the Wild Things Are and so many others so many time we can recite them by heart. And singing them to sleep with Barenaked Ladies and Tom Petty songs because they were more interesting to us the exhausted parents than traditional lullabies. So much love and gratitude for that house on Fostertown Lane. It will always be the first home we owned and the home where we learned to be parents. It will forever contain the baby steps my children took. Now a new family is beginning there. The couple who purchased our home is expecting. I'm so glad that our old home will continue to be blessed with family and I pray they will find the happiness and hope there that we always did.
I give thanks for our new home in Williamstown. For large spaces and opportunities to devote physical space to the things that matter most to us.
