Hello Evie!
Oh, I don't know how your poor mother is going to keep herself together over the next few days. You are turning ONE YEAR OLD on Sunday!! And if that isn't enough to send me into an emotional tailspin, tomorrow afternoon, we will be closing on a new house! Your daddy and I have wanted to live in the the Appleford community in Hillsboro since we were newlyweds. It is such a lovely, picture-perfect community, just like a Norman Rockwell painting. I remember the first time we rode around the neighborhood on a golf cart with the agent and thinking, "I want to raise a family here." We put our house up for sale, and after several showing and even a couple of offers, we ended up taking the house off the market and going to Ireland instead! Ha! But when I was about 3 1/2 months pregnant with you, I took a Sunday afternoon drive back through there, had a chat and another golf cart ride with the agent, and decided that nothing was going to keep our growing family from living there!
The house went up for sale a month later, and after almost a year and half, your dad and I had to come to the realization that we simply were not going to be able to sell this home for what it is worth, and then turn around and be able to afford a house in Hillsboro. We decided to rent, and it rented within the week! (Well, technically a little longer, the Clusterflake of 2014 set us back a few days!) Anyway, at the same time the rental was happening, this foreclosure popped up in Hillsboro. Our real estate agent says in the most incredible deal he's ever been a part of. Since I'm a stay at home mom and freelancer, we can only rely on your dad's salary, and the price tag on this huge, gorgeous house was truly a steal. We've had so many frustrations and set-backs to get into the town of Helena, but it has become our town, our community. We love our church and the family we have become a part of there. All we have wanted was to physically live within Helena proper and give you the chance to grow up in an excellent school system and as a part of a community that has loved you since before you were born.
That was a lot more long-winded than I wanted it to be, and not really the point of this blog post!
While I am over the moon that tomorrow we will own the home of our dreams–the home that you will grow up in, the only home you will ever know!–it is very bittersweet to say goodbye to our little townhouse. After all, this was our first home, and the place we brought you home to.
It was exactly one year ago this week that I was 38 weeks pregnant and Dr. Campbell told me that you would be here as soon as the next day, February 27, but no later than Monday, March 4. I came home from my appointment that afternoon and put some of the final touches on your nursery. It was a Wednesday, and your dad was at church, but I stayed back and enjoyed what could have been my last night pregnant! I sat in the pink rocker and looked at all of the things that turned our ugly old spare room into your room, and listened to the Led Zeppelin Rock-a-Bye Baby album that your dad so giddily bought for you! I even posted pictures on Facebook because I was just so excited! We have had SO MUCH fun in that room over the last year. Like the first time we brought you in there, and I just say down in the rocker and cried, emotionally and physically exhausted but so excited that you were finally here that I didn't know what else to do! The nights that you wouldn't sleep and we stayed up with you to hold you or give you a bottle. Taking your picture every week on your pink star sheets and every month in the rocker so we can see how much you've grown. The first time you rolled over or sat up. Laying on the daybed reading books. Having tummy time on the floor as a newborn. Putting together your sweet little outfits everyday. Putting away your folded laundry–I love how it smells! Recently, you love to make your way to the stool where I keep your books and wooden toys, and pull out every single thing and play with it, especially your little xylophone! Before it was your nursery, it was just a catch-all spare room, and while it was so fun to design and Pin and create it for you, YOU are the best thing that could have gone in there. YOU completed that room, just like you completed us.
Tonight after bathtime, I put you in your jammies, and we laid on the bed and sat in the rocker, with Led Zeppelin Rock-a-Bye Baby playing, and I enjoyed the last night in their with you. I've put it off as long as I could and packed most of the rest of the house, but tomorrow I have to pack up your sweet room. And while your new room will have all of the same things and even some fun new things, and we will have years of fun and memories, there is something about saying goodbye to this one that is kind of tough.
I love you so much, kid. Like the blue pillow on the daybed says: gosh, you are so awesome. You really are.
xox-mommy
