Dear House

June 11, 2015

Dear House

Our house in 2005

Dear House,

10 years ago we walked inside your doors and knew almost instantly that you would be ours. "I can see Christmas in this house," my husband had said. With nervous anxiety that everything would work out, an offer was made, an offer was accepted.

After 10 years of laugher and pain, joy and sorrow, I just wanted to say...

THANK YOU!

Thank you for the protection you gave our family as we resided within your walls. The winds blew hard, but we were safe inside. The summers were HOT, but your rooms kept us cool. The winters were cold, you kept us warm.

Thank you for putting up with the holes, the dings, the damage. You have been oh so forgiving!

Thank you for being a comfortable place in which we could bring our friends and visiting family members. There are so many memories with other people inside your walls for which I am truly grateful! Dinners, dances, parties, gatherings, holidays....the list goes on of the activities you patiently endured.

Thank you for welcoming two new little boys into our family as we resided here in the last ten years. Their tears were comforted and fears hushed while we lived here.

Thank you for becoming the first place of education for our children - - your walls were their schoolroom. Lots of happiness and tears with that adventure! You were there for it all as we covered your walls with timelines, posters, paintings and drawings, and lots of fingerprints.

Thank you for letting us mark your walls while the kids grew taller than me! You have served them well, resolving any battles that might have arised on that subject. :-) Thank you for being a place of refuge they could come home to after a hard day out in the world.

Thank you for being a place for music! Not only did we have some sweet dance parties while here, but we had music filling our home as we worked and played together. Later, the kids got to bring in their own music, bringing even greater joy.

And finally, thank you for letting us go. With sadness we let you go, but with joy we had you over to another. We know the new family entering will treat you kindly and with love. They will fill your walls with even more joy and happiness as the years continue. We are excited to invite a new home into our family and yet will always remember our first, the first home in which we became a family!

Sincerely and with great love,
The Hathaway Family