Friday, April 19, 2013

This House




We did it.  We closed on our house and after this weekend, we will no longer live here.  

At the closing, I was ready to be angry at the couple who bought our house because their agent was such a jack ass.  But when we got there, I saw a couple who looked too young to buy house and were probably clueless to the antics their agent was pulling on us.  

Truth be told, we were probably their age when we bought this house.

Our first house.

At the ripe age of 25.

Ten years ago.

I glanced at the couple as I signed my name a hundred times, and I was overcome with nostalgia.

We were babies when we bought this house.

We brought our babies home from the hospital in this house.  They learned to crawl, walk, and talk in this house.

We became grownups in this house.

I learned who I was in this house.


We don’t want to stay here - we have outgrown this house and want to move to a community with a downtown area with lots of parks.  I’ve been plotting and scheming a way into our new city for years.  And now it’s finally going to happen.

But I’m a little sad to be leaving this house where we became a family.

As I pack up up every single thing, I have had a lot of time to think about things.  (Like every damn day).

I wonder if Marie and Thomas’s rooms will still have their own sweet, distinctive scents: Marie’s  is a mix of lavender bath soap mixed with her own powdery scent.  Thomas’s has this clean, fresh yet sleepy scent.  If I could bottle it up and pack it with us, I would.  Because my heart may break a bit if the scents get lost in the move.

I wonder if we will be happy in our new house.  Yes, I’ve always wanted to live in this city, but sometimes things don’t live up to the image I have in my head.    I am hoping that the lessons I’ve learned in this house have prepared me to accept that nothing is perfect and to find the joy and happiness in any situation.

I wonder if the new couple will become a family here like us and the family before us.

My heart kind of breaks that we will be moving this house, the house where we have had celebrated birthdays and holidays and babyhood milestones.  I am sad to leave the neighbors who have taught me how wonderful it is to live by close friends who you not only trust, but enjoy.  This is an experience that was lost on me in my childhood since we didn’t have a lot of neighbors.  I will be sad not to see them every morning at the bus stop, but eternally grateful for their lesson in friendship.

I know that wherever we are together as a family is home; memories are not constrained by the walls of a home because they can always be found in the heart.  But right now my feelings are a mashup of everything bitter and sweet.


Have you ever moved from a place that you are emotionally connected to?  How did you deal with it?



6 comments:

Liz Parker said...

Wow - first, congrats on buying a house at 25! I'm 26 but just moved into my first apt. :)

I've moved a LOT over the years - we moved from MA to IL when I was 5 and IL to MI when I was 9. I think the only move that really broke my heart a little though was when my parents moved out of the house I lived in for 10+ years, in West Bloomfield, into a condo, during my senior year of college, and for Thanksgiving that year I had to come home to a condo - because I didn't get to 'say goodbye' to my house.

Lily Pad Mama said...

Congrats on your new house!

I bought my first house at 25. It was a VERY small 2 bedroom home but it was perfect for me & my dog. Then I got married and my husband moved in and we immediately outgrew it and the house started having a lot of (expensive) issues. Still, we had our first daughter there and stayed until she was 18 months old.

There was a sense of good riddance when we moved out. But, also a deep sense of sadness. It was the first thing I had ever done on my own. It was the first place I lived with my husband. It was the first place I had my own family. The first place my daughter had so many firsts. It was such a blessing to move on and our family has grown in our new house and we've had so many new firsts. But, a part of me will always be attached to that home.

RealMommyChron said...

OHHH, you hurt my heart with the scents description. That is so sweet. I am sure all things IMPORTANT will still be there in the new home...including scents. :)

So happy for you guys and excited to see the new home and hear about new memories there!!

xo

Erin Janda Rawlings said...

Thanks!

you sound like you have adjusted to moving quite nicely. Hope my kids end up being good with it, too.

Erin Janda Rawlings said...

I am totally struggling with that "good riddance" and "sadness." Thanks for the comment!

Erin Janda Rawlings said...

Thanks so much, Annie! xoxo