We've done it. After praying and dreaming and hoping for years, God has moved mountains and we're moving house. And this, dear friends, is not easy.
Sir Knight and I have known for many years, that although we thought we would raise our children and grow old here on our little prairie, our hearts weren't truly here. Our hearts were in the mountains. We have prayed for years that we would be able to move, however, until now, that has been but a dim and distant hope. Now, in the blink of an eye, it has happened - we are moving!
The emotion of the move has taken me completely by surprise! I somehow thought I would skip out of here with a spring in my step and a smile on my face, but the reality is that I am preparing to leave the only home my children have known, and therein lies the rub.
As I go through shelves and cupboards, clean out under beds and in little used nooks and crannies, I find remnants of the bygone days of my children's childhood. I've undressed the garage door for the last time. I've taken my last tray-full of ashes out of my trusty wood cook stove. I've sold the farm table that caught fire when a gasket cracked on the Petromax lantern I was lighting the first year we lived here, when we were well and truly "off-grid". We've sorted and packed and discarded. And cried. Just a bit.
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| Our annual Highland Hunt |
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| The children's skating rink |
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| Sir Knight reloading |
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| Little Shouse providing the backdrop of our lives |
Sir Knight and I are excited and terrified and overwhelmed, all at the same time. The children are giddy one moment and in the depths of despair the next. They are excited about their new life in the mountains, near their grandparents, and sad to say goodbye to the friends they've known since birth. They are soaking up the last few moments of their childhood home, listening to the sounds of the lid rattling on the wood cook stove as I stoke it and the sounds of the garage door being opened to let the spring air permeate Little Shouse one last time.
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| The kitchen shelves |
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| The fabric of our life |
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| Miss Serenity in the only backyard she's ever know |
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| The Shouse that Built Her |
Soon, we'll begin another adventure. We'll make new memories and learn new lessons. We'll turn the pages of our lives, anticipating each new paragraph, page and chapter. But Little Shouse on the Prairie will always be our prelude. We'll always have the joys and the sorrows, the feasts and the famines. And we'll always have the lessons. Little Shouse has taught us more about life than any education possibly could have. We have learned to love each other and to encourage each other. We have learned to suffer together and to mourn together. We have learned to do without and to find a way when there is no way. We have learned what we can live without. Most importantly, we've learned to lean in to God. We have learned that He is trustworthy, that He is faithful and that His timing is PERFECT!
And so Little Shouse, goodbye....and THANK YOU.
