A letter to the kiddos, started last week, a couple of days before our official move-out day.....finally getting around to posting.
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| Thanks to Lisa for coming over on our last day to snap a couple of quick pictures! |
In less than 48 hours, we will be leaving this home. This home that has been your safe place for the past five and a half years. Your comfy place. Your place to keep your blankies and your toys and your sippy cups and your jammies.
It was in this house that you have learned to step and to sing, to eat from a spoon and to drink out of big kid cups. In this house you have learned to decorate Christmas trees, write your letters, make pictures with chalk and run through a sprinkler. You have learned to hug and to kiss and to smile, in this house.
In this house you have grown. From itty bitty babies to bigger babies to toddlers to preschoolers to grade schoolers. You have grown by inches and pounds in this house.
In this house you have learned to pedal bikes, to climb ladders and to jump on beds. You have learned to throw baseballs, throw food off of your trays and to throw tantrums.
In this house, you have welcomed new siblings and children who needed a temporary home. You have hosted playgroups and birthday parties and small groups and family for the holidays.
In this house, you got your first owies and your first teeth. You received your first baths and your first birthday gifts. You painted your first pictures, baked your first cookies, and learned to go potty on the toilet.
In this house, you've learned to recite Bible verses and your ABCs. You've figured out how the DVD player works and how to open doors. You have become attached to pacis and blankies and to each other.
In this house, you have experienced your first ear infections and your first skinned knees (or foreheads or noses or elbows). You have felt your first hurt feelings, heard your first songs and tasted your first bites of ice cream.
In this house, you have learned that you aren't supposed to color on walls, pee on the floor, climb on top of tables, or play with cords.
In this house, you have begun to figure out how to treat your brothers and sisters, though you still have some learning to do. You have begun to figure out what you want to be when you grow up, though you have plenty of years before making that decision an official one. You have begun to grow into bigger people, though Mommy would be very happy if that process would slow down just a little.
In this house, you have helped to make our family whole. You have contributed in ways you can't understand now, and you have blessed in ways I can't explain in words. In this house, you have grown us to 6. You have brought chaos and craziness and an unprecedented volume level. You have also brought immense love and sweetness and newborn-baby-smell and stinky-diaper-smell and smiles and giggles and pure pure joy.
In this house, you have turned me from a new Mommy into a more seasoned Mommy. From a clueless Mommy into a Mommy who has learned a whole lot yet still has a loooooong way to go. You have shown me that it's possible to love multiple babies equally and completely, and impossible to imagine life without you.
As we leave a lot of what you have known in your short lives in order to begin a new part of our story, I am thankful for the memories you have helped me make in this house. And I can't wait for what's next! Oh there is still so much growing and learning and falling down and getting back up in our future. I am sad that I will no longer be able to walk through the rooms in which so many of your firsts occurred, but I am equally looking forward to new firsts and new memories in new rooms.
In this house, our journey was just getting started. I want you to know that no matter what house we might happen to be in, our family will be home, largely because of the four of you.
Love you,
Momma
