My daughter's favorite shoes
Hi Everybody!
I am checking in to give you an update about where things are heading around here.
Since the garage sale a week and a half ago, we have received close to 15 phone calls or in-person requests for information about the rental of our home. Beginning Saturday and ending Monday, at least four families will be touring our home. We are hopeful that by the end of next week we will have a renter.
If all goes according to plan we will be moving over Memorial Day weekend and have renters in our home by June 1st!
Needless to say, May is going to be one busy month.
We have lived in our house for almost six years and it is difficult for me to believe that that much time has passed. Michael and I had never lived in one place that long. Up until this house we moved a total of six times. (Talk about stressful.)
Now that God has seen fit to move us from this house I’m filled with a little melancholy. Like Little Girl’s shoes, this house has endured a lot. The good and the bad has happened here, all of it ultimately for God’s glory as He has stripped us of our old selves and shaped us like jars of clay, a little more into His image. (Or so I hope)
I think about the spot by the kitchen counter where I felt full-on contractions as Little Girl decided it was indeed time to present herself. My husband was on the phone with Little Grandma and Grandpa and completely oblivious to me flagging him down that he had to get off the phone.
I remember the countless hours at the kitchen table in front of the double doors that open into the backyard. I sat there and prayed, I sat there and labored over teaching Little Man to read, and celebrated the day there when he finally completed his reading program.
I remember the exact spot in the hallway where I fell to the floor screaming by the sudden agonizing pain that invaded my neck, not knowing what was happening to me. My husband crouched down next to me and gripped my head in his arms to keep it still and just held me as I sobbed.
The bathtub, behind bedroom doors, and under tables were spots where all of us hid during games of “hide and seek”.
Construction paper depicting clues for scavenger hunts that led to birthday and Christmas gifts, have been taped on doors, in hallways, in the yard, and on the back porch of this house.
I remember spending so many hours in the master bedroom deeply depressed by the constant nausea that assaulted my body during my pregnancy with Little Girl. Later I would spend countless hours sleeping due to the strong pain killers that made my life liveable during my journey toward a cervical fusion.
I have such wonderful memories of sitting out in the driveway watching our kids play with the neighbors in the cul-de-sac. Little Girl and the toddler next door looked like bobble heads as she drove him around in her Barbie Jeep, oblivious to trees, mailboxes, curbs…..howling with laughter. Little Man and his sweet friend would sit on our driveway day after day building Lego forts and ships or would change from costume to costume drawing from mountains of play clothes. The kids from both our families would take turns competing in dance contests to the tunes of Toby Mac and the Newsboys.
My husband and I would sit out on the back porch planning our landscaping which never really worked out) and our raised vegetable garden (which did do well). We spent so many hours on the living room couch in serious discussion or sitting on the couch in the den to watch movies after the kids went to bed.
My relationship with this house reminds me a little bit of the show “Lost”. We didn’t choose this house. It was a last minute escape route suggested by our realtor as we were fleeing a housing situation that we thought had gone bad. It wasn’t what I wanted but it was to be my partner in life for awhile. Like the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 this house and I would slowly forge an amicable relationship as we faced what God brought our way. This house comforted me in some of my darkest hours and I learned to appreciate it for what it could give me. I learned how to see past its flaws. And we definitely met some “Others” while we have been here. 🙂
Thankfully we won’t be leaving because we have actually discovered we are dead or are doing some freakish time travel…. We are leaving because it is the next step. God has something else planned. And whether we like it or not, life moves on.
SO, thank you 702 Dragonfly Circle for loving me despite my lack of appreciation. You were good to me and offered me what I didn’t know I needed. You helped this family grow and make wonderful memories. You were a blessing and not a curse.
As for this blog, the month of May is going to be full of sporadic updates. And the beginning of June most likely as well. But slowly and surely, life will begin to flow evenly again and I will be eager to share what God revealed to me during these coming weeks.
Thanks for reading.
I
Running Free In High Heels 