Saying Good-bye to the Big House
Recently, the house that was the icon of everything that meant “home” to me for 20+ years, passed from our family's possession into the name and hands of another family, whom we trust will experience just as much love and make just as many happy memories there as we did.
This was a big thing for my parents, and for us three kids. Though I am thankful for God's provision at this time, I am also somewhat melancholy as I thank God for memories so sweet they are almost painful…
- The house where I got my first tetanus shot after a scrape in Kindergarten.
- The house where, as a child, I imagined a space outside my bedroom window that would be home to my pet elephant when my parents finally gave in and let me get one (they didn't 🙂 but I did have one, incredible and favorite, gray cat…Ashes
- The house where my sister and I argued about whose mess it was, played together on the floor of our bedroom, created stories together with the toys we had sewn clothes for.
- The house where my brother had so many escapades… (flour, and paint to name a couple)
- The house where hamsters always seemed to escape and show up again in the oddest places, and where cats inevitably knocked over the Christmas tree at least once each season.
- The house that gave us bragging rights after encounters with deadly snakes, bears and other wildlife.
- The house that had such a special position on the earth's surface that any cloudless night of the year you could almost touch the stars above you, but never count them all.
- The house where I would lay in bed and listen to my Daddy sing downstairs at night.
- The house where I learned to work…
- The house where I got saved, late one night, kneeling beside my parents' bed.
- The house where I learned so much about art from Mom…
- The house where I baked my first cookies “all by myself”.
- The house where we celebrated so many Christmases and holidays and get togethers with family and friends.
- The house that hosted cousins through the years… Dutch Blitz and Dress up with Cherith and Adina (who were almost too old for that), Monopoly and Sound of Music with Felix and Russell, Uno marathons and no bake cookies with the Fotuskys, Scooter races with the Closes and Uncle Kevin's bunch, playing with Eric's little ones on their visits through the years.
- The house whose outdoors held so much magic to me as a kid, forts and streams and climbing trees, and blanket picnics in the leaves, the smells and sounds after a summer's rain, pungent memories, never to be relived again…
- The house that watched us write our first prayer letter as the Chapman family and again as the Hornor family.
- The house that was “home” when Tap and I brought our firstborn home for the first time.
- And SO many wonderful more….
The “Big House” as it was fondly called will always be the Big House to me, Big in my memories because of all the blessedness of life God allowed me to experience there, and the memories made with so many special people.
My prayer is this: May our “home” come to be just as Big in sweet memories for our children… and thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me!
Authors Note: Happy Ending! 3 years after I wrote this post, my sister and her husband bought the Big House! It's back in the family again! God is good!