A house is never just a house.

Some people grow up in different houses their whole lives. For example, Steven moved several times as a child all the way up to his high school years. So sometimes we view things a little differently just because we grew up living a different way when it came to a place to call home. 

I lived in the same home from the time I came home from the hospital from the time I was 18 years old and moved away for college. Then I moved back into that same home after college before marrying Steven and moving to Charleston. Now my parents still live in that same home, and it’s the home that I’ll always consider “home.” It was and never will be just a house to me. 

The memories I have in that house are ones I’ll cherish a lifetime. To name a few... I can remember the Christmas Eves that Casey (“Bubba”) would wake me up telling me to come see what Santa brought, the late nights we’d stay up eating bologna sandwiches after Momma & Daddy went to sleep, and how can I forget the cassette tape that Meg would rewind and play over & over for us to go to sleep- Little Texas “What Might Have Been.” It’s the house that pets were brought home to after Daddy saying, “now we’re gonna find them a home” and little did he know that home was ours years later. It’s the house that those same pets have their own little burials around the property including three individual shoe boxes with wild turkey babies that I tried to raise. And yes we had three individual funerals for them too. It’s the house that contains a bathroom door with a hole in it from where my brother chased my sisters around with an old civil war rifle, and he sent it straight through the door... they tried to cover it with brown construction paper, and up until my high school years that hole remained in that door. It contains the hallway that Casey & I were running in and I sliced my head open on the corner wall and had to get stitches as a kid. It’s the place mom got mad at Casey one time and threw his Nintendo out the bedroom window (even though she claims to this day she never did such a thing). It holds the same living room we all gathered in on mattresses during the winter storm of ‘93, and Daddy cooked everything on the old wood burning stove. It’s the home that held last Thanksgivings, Christmases, and last Easters with our loved ones that have gone before us. It’s the house we fought in, threw things in, cried in, laughed in, and most of all we loved in. 

So I say all of that to say that a house has never been just a structure to me- especially one that has held so many memories along the way. 

For us, Charleston is our first true home away from home. Never in all my life had I thought I’d leave Alabama (let alone move to Hawaii either but that’s happening). We rented our first home here in Charleston, and I even cried the day we left it just to move 10 minutes down the road. This home of three years though.... our first home we purchased, the first home we built, and the home that has brought us the most memories thus far. 

We’ve given babies back to Jesus in this house. We’ve cried- like truly heartbreak cried within these walls. We’ve fought, we’ve yelled, we’ve slammed doors, but we’ve also experienced pure joy in this house. I remember the weeks just before Livie June arrived I would sit and rock in her completed nursery... Steven would come and ask what I was doing, and I would reply with “just taking it all in.” This home holds the walls that have heard her screams, her laughs, and her giggles. The living room holds her very first steps, and the staircase has more tiny “Miss Independent” footprints than you could ever imagine. The hand rail contains her tiny fingerprints from her reaching to touch it like a big person while stepping down each step so carefully. Just yesterday my eyes began to water as I sprayed her little handprints off the stainless steel refrigerator doors. The walls contain a few unnoticeable (but noticeable to me because I know they’re there) tire marks from where she drives her little cars. It’s the home we went from two dogs to one in. The nursery is where her “pubby” lays at night some times as if to guard her crib. This home is a place of love and memories. It holds all of the “firsts” and I’ll forever love it for those. 

Livie June and I are traveling home to Alabama before the big movers come so we will not be here to see it all empty. Steven will be here to see it through though. If I had to see her nursery empty I might need someone to pick me up off the floor. So it’s a good thing we’re leaving before the movers arrive. 

I pray that whatever family moves in that they too will experience the joy that we’ve felt within these walls. I pray they love each other, and I pray that God fills their home with peace. I pray they cherish it the way we have. I pray they see it as a new beginning, a new home to create new memories in, and I pray it’s truly a home for them. 

Charleston has been so good to us, and we are so sad to be leaving it. The friends we’ve made here are friends we’ve made for a life time. Some of them have even moved on before us, but they too are friends that we will have “get-togethers” with until we’re old and grey. We’ve made military friends that we were brought together by the one thing we had in common and ended up having a million things in common. These friendships are ones that so many others will never understand. We’re all so different yet so similar, and we all understand the term “see you soon” all too well. We’ve already talked about how we’ll visit each others’ “forever homes” in Texas, Washington, New England, Alabama, and maybe even back here in Charleston one day. I can’t wait for those days. And even though a few of them have moved on before us and two more will move after us- I’m including all of us when I say we’ve been through what more friends go through in a lifetime in just our 6 years together. Deployments. The loss of parents. The loss of unborn babies. Hardships of relatives with cancer. Becoming moms. Moving ins and moving outs. You name it we’ve probably been through it together, and all the while we’ve prayed for each other unconditionally. 

We’ve made local friends and neighbors that have become lifelong friends as well. We know they’ll be visiting us in Hawaii and then on to Alabama one day. These friends have witnessed our pain, our heartache, and they experienced the joy with us too. They’ve prayed for us the way friends of 20+ years pray for you. We love them, and they’ve become our family away from family. It’s been an amazing journey here in Charleston, and we couldn’t be more thankful for the memories. 

...but we’re packing up & heading out to our next adventure. Charleston, you’ll always hold a special place in our hearts. 

Livie June & I will be hanging out in Alabama until we all fly out of Atlanta (with Steven, a dog, a cat, and about 12 checked bags) on April 16th to Hawaii! Don’t worry we’ll keep you updated along the way! 

Today as we packed the final few things in the Uhaul I took one last walk through our home. Upstairs I shut the door to a nursery we brought a little girl home to, but before I did I thanked God for giving us this season of life. His timing will always be perfect, and He’s given us so much to be thankful for in our six years in CHS and 3 of those in this home. I know our next home will have a whole new chapter of memories. And in a few years I’ll be pouring tears again... but until then we’ve got lots of new memories to start creating in another house (a much smaller one 😂) on a tropical island 😉🌴🌺

Aloha 🌺