Seasons, They are a Changin’

The season is changing from summer to fall and the seasons of life for us are also changing.

I recently wrote about the realtor asking me to share 10 things about our house that would help the new owners.
Our house wasn’t listed for 36 hours and it had 5 showings and two offers.

The two offers were within dollars of each other. One offer stood out. They had written a letter. A letter saying how they both grew up with woods and acreage. How they were engaged and had a baby. Also had a 12 year old son from a pervious marriage.

We started our marriage very similar to theirs and I knew they were the ones. I had prayed for them without even knowing them.
This 5 acres needed more children to play here. My babies were 3, 5, 11, and 12 when we moved here. So much laughter. So many memories. It was a wonderful place to raise our children.

It only makes sense that this would be the time to move. I’m already grieving the kids growing up. Not that they asked me, but that isn’t anything new.

We close in a week. One more lazy Saturday morning. One more drive to church. The lazy Saturday’s are much quieter, as are the drives to church.
I am in the middle of grieving their childhood and the memories in this home, and at the same time so excited of the journey that is to come.

You see, The Principal didn’t get the job in Seattle (had I even mentioned that was a possibility?) That process kept us from buying a 5th wheel and traveling full time, which was the plan we had originally. It put the brakes on that plan and in the end was a huge blessing and the home of our, well my, dreams.
A yellow house with a red door, 3 dormers (my mom always wanted 3 dormers), and a large front porch. It’s in town. I know! No more homesteading. Well, in the traditional sense. Suburban homesteading and prepping may be topics going forward.

Can you grieve selling your home? I believe you can. There was a lot of life lived in 15 years. A lot of hugs. A lot of arguments between siblings. A lot of sleepovers on the trampoline. There were 4 new teenagers in this home. There were 4 new drivers who maneuvered our driveway and 4 18th Birthday born fires.

Our daughter shared this:

I drove down the driveway in Blanchard for the last time today. The next time I drive down that driveway it will probably be to show my Kids where I grew up. As it is sad to leave, I carry my memories along with me. Building and re-building the different tree houses that we never finished, riding our bikes around on the quad trail that we made or pacing around it when having a ruff day, walking through the woods behind us with the moose trailer and grandma with a gun to get to the Millers, the sword fights, capture the flag with glow stick, the many bonfires, walking to the end of the driveway to get Grans paper every morning, the many Christmas, the animals we have buried, the family debates in the living room, the full on wrestling matches (where I won by the way) and many many more memories both good and bad. We moved onto this property when I was 5. Now we go on to the next adventure that awaits us. We may have sold a home but we have not sold the memories. If anything we opened up an opportunity for a new young family to make their own memories on this Red Rock Ranch.

::passing you a tissue::

I am blessed to have lived in one place for so long, considering my beginning. I never dreamt I would be so blessed for what is to come.
Here’s to new memories in our new home and may we take good care of it as the previous owners did.