So, I sit here in my home of almost 8 years for the last evening. Memories invade every corner of this house. From the front door where we walked in with Bella Grace for the first time to the backyard where neighbors became friends. Each room has a life of its own. And they have only evolved and changed as time has moved on. Bedrooms have changed from guest rooms or offices now filled with little bodies wanting to be tucked in every night. The kids went to the grandparents house Saturday but I swore I heard laughter down the hall today echoing from the very walls. I know it remains. These walls have held us together when everything seemed to be falling apart. The wooden hallways kept our feet firm on the days when I felt I could no longer stand. The beautiful front yard gave us a place of refuge when the tiny ranch house seemed to close in on us. The backyard brought us friendship, with the lifting of little ones over the fence beckoning one another to play. The dining room filled with so many amazing conversations over a long dinner and a good bottle of wine. Oh yet how I quickly forget the hard. The tantrums in that hallway. The nights when the baby would not fall asleep and we would pace the little nursery complete with exhaustion. The fights resulting in a closed bedroom door hoping to show him the hurt. The saying goodbye to our first dog out the front window as he drove away with his new owner. The hard comes with the good in this house. And tomorrow we leave it all behind. We say goodbye to the only place our children have known as home. The place where love has grown, through the good and the bad. And now we look forward with great expectation on what the walls will echo back to us in our new home. My prayer is that it will be even better than we could imagine. So goodbye to you, our first home. Though we leave you, we will never forget the joy found within these walls. You have been so good to us.