Our Last Day

Today was our last day in our home of four years.

Our home where we have
added four children to our family,
celebrated birthdays,
started a tradition of having a family slumber party in the living room on New Year's Eve,
grieved a lost baby,
put countless hours of love into the landscaping where there once was none,
bandaged boo-boos,
made so many sweet friends,
had five pets (Charles and Hippopotamus have since found other families, and Dinah went to kitty heaven, but we still have old Calvin and Molly Brown),
worked through trauma,
caught fireflies,
fought,
stayed up late canning jams and tomato sauce,
painted a whole wall with chalkboard paint,
read the first five Harry Potter books,
almost lost Jude a few times when he got out of the yard or window,
rode bikes and had family fun runs around the parking lot,
worshipped together,
watched our kids grow by the foot and blossom into awesome little people,
and so much more.

Josh summed it up well this morning with this meme:

We are equally excited about the next steps that God is leading us to take, and deeply grieving the loss of our church, friends, and home here. I'm trying to teach our kids that it's okay to hold both of those things in our hands at the same time, that feeling one doesn't mean we aren't allowed to feel the other. And I'm trying to remind myself of the same thing.

Please pray for us tomorrow as we move and settle into a new home and life.