The House that Built Me

My husband and I had a touching experience happen a few months ago. We were saying goodbye to my mom and seeing her out the door when we saw someone in their SUV parked outside on the street looking at our home. She jumped out of her car and apologized for being there and let us know that she had grown up in our home as a child and was showing her own children where she used to live. We invited her and her kids in to take a peek at how things had changed and remained over the years. She was shocked and touched to be invited in by strangers and walked from room to room explaining exactly how it used to look, crying as she entered her room as a child, sharing what work her family had done, and telling memories. You could tell it took her back many years from her age of 40 to being a small girl again and playing with her sister. 

Those moments reminded me exactly of Miranda Lambert's "The House that Built Me" song and how the home you grow up in is a part of you in an inexplicable way. My own home was the one my parents picked before they were even pregnant with me and my twin sister when my oldest sister was a preschooler. This house remains in my life and holds insurmountable memories of joy, laughter, tears, pain, growth, challenge, work, learning, friends, family, homework, dogs, cats, make believe, sister time, cozy fireplaces, Christmas trees, creaky stairs, horrible shades of carpet, delicious smells in the kitchen, painting rooms over and over again, family dinners at the table over conversation, bedtime stories and read-alouds, frustration, healing, conversation, sharing one bathroom with four girls, snuggling, games, furniture re-arranging, silliness, yardwork, rollerblading, adventures, bocci ball, music, piano lessons, support, studying, love, and so much more. It's not necessarily the house itself that built who I am, but the fact that it was so full of love and memories and where I grew from an infant to a baby to a toddler to a little girl to a teenager to a college student to a girlfriend to a fiancee to a woman. It is important in a way that I cannot describe and the people, memories, and love within it's walls built me.