To The Family Moving Into Our Old Home

Dear family moving into our old home,

 

What a bittersweet day for us! We are absolutely thrilled that this home will now be yours-that you can fix meals together, enjoy walks around the neighborhood, and spend time on the deck like we did. Our new home is beautiful, but this little house will always be special. It’s where Cody lived while he got his English Lit degree in college, where my friends and I used to drive up from Montgomery to hang out on football weekends. It’s the place where Cody would cook me dinner and pack me leftovers for my lunch the next day to take to my first teaching job. Here, I moved into a bachelor pad after we got married and turned it into a home that represented the two of us together. For five years as a married couple, we played cards, watched movies, cooked, had deep conversations, and built a marriage we were proud of. It was next where we brought home our newborn son; where we stared at him while he slept and counted our blessings; where we as a family fell in love with one another again and again. 

 

 

These walls have always been more than a house to us. They have truly been our home base, our safe haven, our holy ground. This house is where we celebrated our greatest joys and mourned our deepest losses. Sure, the cliche events have been celebrated here: a marriage and bringing home a baby, but those aren’t the memories that will cause my heart to ache when we drive by the neighborhood. Snuggling on the couch with my baby, us both cozy in a blanket; a warm sunny afternoon on the deck watching him stare at the trees blowing in the wind; the belly laugh over dinner when Cody makes a funny face; Cody rocking Sully while I read a picture book before bed: these are the moments that will cause a little tear to form in my eye as the days pass. 

This space is sacred, and I am confident the Holy Spirit dwells here. Cody and I fought in prayer over so many aspects of our life, and we have seen time and time again in this very house how God is at work for us.

 

I pray for you all often: that this house makes you feel cozy, warm, and protected: that the memories you make here will carry you through whatever life brings your way; that the conversations in this house bring you closer than ever before.

 

A small part of our hearts stayed behind here today, and that is okay. If motherhood has taught me anything, it’s that my heart can simultaneously ache for the past, celebrate the present, and look forward to the future. We are thankful that the future of this home is you. 

 

With bittersweet joy,

Leigh Ann Parker