No Turning Back Now!

Last night we signed a lease to rent out our home for 12+ months. This home that we purchased four months after getting hitched and where we’ve lived for 13 years will belong to someone else for 12+ months beginning in September. I have spent my adult life in this home.  The day we moved in, I remember asking our friend to snap a photo of us, (these were the days before selfies became a reflex), next to the “Sold” sign and the tattered, leaning black mailbox that was now ours; well, to be exact it was 10% ours and 90% the bank’s. I remember how empty yet how full of possibilities it felt when we first moved in, and I remember saving up as newlyweds to purchase one piece of furniture at a time and how exciting it was to watch our home slowly coming together.  

Over the course of 13 years, we built and ran a successful business from this home, working countless late nights and weekends to give our customers a quality experience and our employees a company of which they could be proud. We adopted two puppies who still guard our house to this day. We’ve addressed innumerable repairs and unavoidable maintenance projects including a new breaker box, a new HVAC system, new windows, a new roof, critters in the attic, and tunneling under half the house to fix sewer pipes.  Somehow though, that tattered, leaning mailbox never made its way to the top of our “honey do” list. But it keeps our mail dry when it rains, and that’s what counts, right? As for the kitchen, luckily I’ve had more cooking and baking successes than disasters (barely), and I still use pots, utensils, and plates that were wedding gifts from family and friends.

We brought our babies home to this house. We became parents here. Those four words represent perhaps the most profound transformation we’ve been blessed to experience. I slowly emerged from a postpartum fog many months after our daughter was born, and this home was my steady sanctuary throughout, never judging, never questioning. Like a silent partner in solidarity. Our home office became the nursery, and my rocker now sits exactly where my desk chair once did. I have spent hundreds of hours in that precise corner.

Our daughter took her first steps here, and it will be any day now when our son does the same. We’ve hidden Easter eggs on our front lawn. We’ve snapped first-day-of-school photos by our front door. We’ve carved pumpkins on our front porch. We have a red toddler swing, also a gift from friends, hanging from our massive live oak tree that we use almost every day. A quick shout-out to our beautiful live oak tree: you are majestic; you are welcoming; you are strong; and you may have been the reason I fell in love with this house.

I thought about all of these things as I signed the lease. We have been planning our upcoming trip for almost a year now, and yet things just got very real. We have now made a commitment to actual humans outside of our family unit that yes, indeed, we are doing this! Our tenants are planning to enjoy our home beginning in September, which means… we gotta get out!

This home has been (and still is) an amazing place for us, and while I am undoubtedly excited for our adventures while we are away, a part of me is at peace knowing I will return. Until then I hope that this home brings our tenants the same comfort, safety, inspiration, and peace it’s brought us. Oh, and we just replaced that tattered, leaning mailbox with a shiny new one. It was time. I look forward to posing with it on moving day. All four of us.