Moving and Milestones: What 9 Years in One House Taught Me About Home

Today we closed on a home we lived in for 2 weeks short of 9 years. That’s the longest, by several months, that we’ve ever lived in one place. Our “normal” stay in any place was 5 years (almost to the week a couple of times), so to live somewhere for 9 years is quite the record for us. While I’m so excited for our all the new memories we’ll make in our new home, it was still pretty sad signing on the dotted lines and handing over the keys to the new owners at our closing this morning.

So many milestones and exciting things happened for our family while we were living in this home (in no particular order):

• Zach got married
• Kam got married
• We became grandparents for the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth times
• Parker went on his first date
• Kailen went on her first date
• Parker graduated from high school
• Kailen graduated from high school
• Kailen got her driver’s license
• Zach, Angela, Kam, and I all graduated from BYU-Idaho—on the same day
• John changed jobs. Twice. After being at the same job for 24 years
• Many fun family trips
• Many fun trips with just the two of us
• Trials and challenges
• Parker left on his mission
• Kailen left on her mission
• Parker went off to college
• Kailen went off to college and we became empty nesters
• John’s mom passed away
• Many fun visits from family
• Three surgeries for me
• Many church callings (responsibilities) that stretched us and helped us to grow
• I started my dream job
• So many friendships created with friends who are now like family
• Tons of blessings and tender mercies
• Lots of laughs
• Lots of tears
• Lots and lots of family memories that I’ll cherish forever

As I walked through our old home for the last time, I couldn’t help but think of all of the above and so many more. And while I got a little bit teary, I realized one thing:

“Home” is wherever you are with those you love.

And I can keep all the memories from our old home, and now I get to add many new memories from our new home.

I’m excited to experience all that will happen over the years to come in our new home!