Goodbye to our first home

House portrait of our little home in Spanish Fork

Yesterday we signed the closing papers for the sale of our previous home. It is such a relief to have the responsibilities, both financial and practical, of owning two homes lifted off our shoulders, especially given that it has been six months since we moved into our new home. But still, it's a little bittersweet to say goodbye to that home that held our family for five years.

In the spring of 2008, Nick and I were house hunting, and happened to stumble upon a cute little community of town homes in Spanish Fork, UT. There were duck ponds, a playground and horses grazing nearby. There were a handful of basically identical houses for sale, but it was only the one tucked into a quiet corner by the ponds that made me skip up and down on the sidewalk with excitement. I just knew it was going to be our home. And about six weeks later, it was.

Our first meal in our first home - no furniture yet!

For the first few years it was just the two of us. We painted everything in sight (except our bedroom and bathroom that remain white to this day, because we could never ever decide on the color) and set about making it our very own. We hosted our first ever Christmas at home with my parents as our guests.

That little home saw us through some tough times too. Some of our darkest days as we struggled with infertility were spent there, and it's where we lived when my dad was diagnosed with cancer.

But mostly that little house was a happy home. I (finally!) graduated from college in that house. We enjoyed happy times with family and friends, and I stumbled down those stairs on two separate mornings with tears of joy in my eyes to tell Nick that I was pregnant. We brought our babies home to that house.

The nursery we decorated for our babies.

We spent holidays and birthdays and everydays in that house. It was where we really and truly became a family. We painted and built and gardened and grew that little place from a house into a home.

Gwen's blessing day. 

Now it is not our home anymore. We have a new home and are in the thick of building memories here. Tonight another little family will get the keys and unlock the door to their new home and new life. They will have their own memories and stories from their time in that little house, and I hope it will be the happy home for them that it was for us.