Our First Home, A Memoir

This, our first home, will be hard to leave. So many memories have been made here indeed. This has been my first real home as an adult, my first home as a wife, my first home as a mom. This home is so much more than brick and mortar and four walls. This home is full of memories and love. This home will be hard to leave.

This is the home where I visited when dating my husband. This is the home where he proposed. Candles and rose petals everywhere, he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. I can still see it all now ever so clearly. Memories etched in my mind. This is the home that became ours, transformed from a stale bachelor pad to a beautiful home where we would start our life.

This is the home where we entertained friends and made new ones. This is the home where we hosted international students from all over the world, squeezing into our tiny home that felt so big with love. This is the home where 5-15 girls from all over the world would come to and learn about Jesus for many months. This is a home that God allowed us to use to serve Him and others.

This is the home where we made our babies, and literally birthed our first two. In the “nook” of our bedroom I laid in the water tub laboring and bringing forth new life into this world. Never has this bedroom been filled with so much love. This is the home where I bounced colicky newborns and snuggled them in my arms. This is the home that was filled with laughter and noise as our family grew from two to three to four.

This is the home where I hosted my first, second, and twentieth playdate, as I formed my first “mommy” friends and shared deeply from the heart the joys and struggles of motherhood. This is the home where I learned to cook and bake and fill my families hearts and tummies full with food and love. This washer and dryer have washed loads and loads of clothes to keep my family warm. This bathtub has bathed my girls and kept them clean. This yard has provided hours and hours of fun and entertainment.

These neighbors at my first home are the most amazing thing of all. I wish I could pack them all up. These neighbors at our first home care and love relentlessly and selflessly and are always there. I know this block like the back of my hand. I know their cars, their comings and goings, their dogs, and many of their stories, yet I wish I knew them all more. The streets of Colonial Acres I know very well. I have walked them for five and a half years. First it was the two dogs and I, then the first baby and I plus the dogs, now the two girls and I, and one dog. Five years of walking and praying and enjoying the landscape of beautiful homes and majestic oak trees, but most of all smiling faces and warm “hellos”.

I will be sad to leave these neighbors, these streets, our first home. This home where we went through job changes, and family changes. This home where we laughed, cried, and prayed. This home where we loved and hoped, and tickled little bellies.

Chances are the kids won’t remember much about this, our first home. They are young enough now, that it will be a faint memory, that only pictures will shed light on. They will remember our next home as their “first” home and have memories there. But my husband and I will always know this was our first home, where we became husband and wife, and parents. 4680 Flamingo will always be our first home.

Our home is for sale. If in Memphis please check out the Zillow ad and spread the word. 
4680 Flamingo Rd on Zillow