Sunday, June 30, 2013

Leaving Our Home






We are officially out of our home. All of our things besides our suitcases and a handful of things are in a storage unit in town. One of our good friends that Andrew and I both worked with for a time is letting us stay with her and her family for a week. Andrew is finishing work at the cafe, and then we will be heading down to Texas one week from tomorrow.

One of the many things in storage is my camera cord, so these pictures are ones taken this last week by Andrew and me on our phones. I love the first picture. Andrew took it as Blanche was napping on our last morning in our house. We had moved our mattress downstairs with the last handful of things left the night before. The upstairs was pretty much finished, and I envisioned a family slumber party in the living room. The reality was both Andrew and Blanche being asleep by nine thirty and me on my phone listening to our neighbors in their living room right beside my face. Blanche was then up with the sun as all of our curtains were down. I think I was restless to just leave. I get like that. I just want to do it. To finish. We had planned on fully leaving the house yesterday, on Saturday, and then coming back today to clean. But I was just sick of being there. So we pushed through and turned in our keys last night.

Andrew said he felt sad as he left the house the last time. Feeling mostly sad for the way we lived our life as a family in that little town home. But then he remembered that all of that was coming with us. I took a 90's style magnet from my cousin that is a fabric heart that says, "Home is Where the Heart is." Someone had left it in her apartment. She really didn't care that I took it. And now I'm glad that magnet is packed with the rest of our things. Because a lot of times in life the cheesy cliches are true. I remember my high school english teacher hating when we used cliches. And they are boring when thrown around carelessly. But what I think she wanted us to do was to find a new way to write what everyone already knew. All humans have the same heart beating in their chest, and even though at times we feel other people are annoying or have no idea what our life is like… most of the time that person is probably way more like us than we realize. I know I am not the first person to move. I am not the first person to leave my baby's first home.

I think I felt sentimental and extra sensitive. I think the killer for me was on our last night when Blanche entered her completely empty room and stood in her empty closet and did the sign for "home." I said, "Oh is this your home?" She responded in her sing songy, "Yeeaah." Of course I yelled down the stairs, "Andrew she is signing home!" To do the sign for home you pinch your thumb and first two fingers together and touch by your mouth and your check, because it is where you eat and where you sleep. And that's the funny thing about a home. Thats really what its for. And like my mother in law text me this week, as long as Blanche is with us she will be fine. We will all be fine. Because we have each other. And our little lives with our little things will continue in a new place. With new adventures.

2 comments:

  1. Keith & I loved visiting you there! Your home was so warm and welcoming and I am certain your new place will feel like home in no time! We are so thankful that you will be so close to us!!

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  2. Change is hard, bittersweet, exhausting and heart-rending but often full of lovely bits of serendipity and hope. For it is through change that we grow... becoming better, stronger, new and fresh. Opportunity is born through change. It's worth it all. :)

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