Goodbye to our First Home

The word arrived today, in bright red letters sprawling over the sign on our front lawn - SOLD!

My tears immediately started to flow, both of excitement and sadness.  How do you say goodbye and leave behind a home that has held so much of your life story?  We arrived here a mere 8 years ago, yet so much has changed during that time.  We are not the same people we were then.

We came with the hope and promise of a new job opportunity for Daniel, and the start of a new career for me, with my MA in Counselling Psychology nearly complete.  We chose a home to be our first, and carefully picked colours and styles, and planted flowers, and made it our own.  We dreamed and anticipated the start of our family.

These walls held many prayers and tears as we faced a battle with infertility.   We had near and dear friends in for dinner, barbeques, drinks and desserts.  We hosted multitudes of young adults and youth, seeking God through Bible study and fellowship.  We opened our doors to students from around the world, coming to the beauty of Canada to study English.  We visited with friends and family from all around the world.  We listened to music, played music, sang music and celebrated music.  We cooked, cleaned, hosted, encouraged, counselled, prayed and laughed with too many people to count.

In the silences, we snuggled by the fire and watched movies, read books and drank tea and the setting sun, baked, decorated, and made this place a home.  We built and planted a garden and grew our own food.  We picked apples from our trees and made delicious cider and many an apple pie.  We walked through the nearby trails on a daily basis with our dog, to the beach, to the marina, to the coffee shop, through the neighbourhood.  We saw my parents on a weekly, if not daily basis.  We lived life in this home.

And then...

The long awaited day came.  I watched my belly grow day by day and grew two children in this home.  I sat through the summer by the fan in the basement and the kiddie pool in the yard.  I planned a nursery in this home.  And I brought my two babies back, to THIS home.   We became the family we are today, in this home.

Now we say goodbye.  We don't stop being the family we are when we leave this home.  We don't stop living life.  But we will change, as we did since we moved here.  This chapter of life closes, and another opens.

Goodbye Cedar Ave.  We will always remember you.