On Friday, August 3, at 2:30 our house was officially sold. I went to the house two days before, after the girls had gone to bed, around 9 to do a final cleaning. I knew it would be so much easier without them there. I cleaned for about two hours and made sure we had gotten everything. I took one final walk around the house just to take it all in, to remember how it looked with all of our stuff gone. I had been so busy for a month packing, moving, and cleaning out that the whole idea of leaving this house had not had a chance to sink in. Well, that night it sunk in and the tears started falling.
We purchased this house, our very first home, on May 20, 2008. The day before we signed the papers I found out I was pregnant with Ella. It was such a blessing that the Lord had provided the perfect house for us to bring our first baby home to in January of 2009. We welcomed our second sweet girl, Layla, into our home in May 2011. This house is filled with memories of my girls.
It will always be where Ella ran and ran, it had the perfect track around the living room, into the kitchen and through the hallway. Where we played in the living room floor every morning and every night.
This will always be Ella's first room. This is also the smallest bedroom. Why I put my first baby in the smallest bedroom when there were two others available I will never know!
This is my sweet Layla's room. It was occupied the shortest amount of time, but gosh I loved this room. So many mornings I would wake up to hear Ella in Layla's room laughing and jumping in her crib. Of course I would then have to get on to Ella for waking Layla up, but it was precious!
Our master bedroom. Honestly, when I think of this room I think of Trey and Ella watching Monday night wrestling on our bed and wrestling! She loves it when he does wrestling moves on her and throws her on the bed. We loved having the girls watch cartoons with us in bed on Saturday mornings.
Our bathroom quickly became the family bathroom. It is nice and big and the girls loved taking baths in the big tub. They took their first bath together in that tub, and yes I have pictures!
This is the room that brought me to tears though. This is Ella's room. This is where I rocked my baby, read to my toddler, and sang to my big girl. I painted those dots on her wall when she was just over a year old. She wanted so badly to help me, but no way was I letting her near the wall! I have spent countless hours in this room with my sweet girl. This has so many special memories for me.
As I was reminiscing and crying I sat down in the empty living room on the floor. I thanked God for blessing me with an amazing husband who encouraged me to quit working and stay home with my baby girl and took on the sole responsibility of paying for this house. I thanked him for the awesome opportunity to bring two healthy babies home and to spend all my time with them. I thanked him for blessing us with a new home.
While I emptied this house of all of our possessions, it will never be empty for me and I thank God for that.
