It somehow has gone from January to May since my last post. I actually have a handful of started posts in my queue, but never finished or published them. I'll write an update post later, but today it's time for a little trip down Memory Lane.
There is an inevitability in life (besides death and taxes), and that is CHANGE. Things WILL change, life simply is not stagnant. Change can be difficult, but it can also be a huge blessing and joy. Three years ago, my little family unit of 4 went through some major changes, which have been so great for us. During those same three years, my parents have been talking about a dreaded change...moving from the family home. It makes sense, with all of us grown and out on our own, they have not needed the large house for quite some time now. Still, there was somebody besides the two of them living there up until the baby moved out and married just over a year ago. There was still a grandchild making use of an extra room, until last Fall when that was no longer needed either. They began talking in earnest about their next phase of life, and where it might take them. As exciting as the prospects were (them living closer to us!), there was also the sadness that came with the thought of a piece of my childhood coming to an end.
The house on Creekview Place was house built in 1981/82, with us moving in on Valentine's Day in 1982. At that time, we were a family of 5, it was my big brothers and me, with another baby on the way that summer. For ten years, we lived a lot of life in our cozy 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom home, a strong family unit of 6. Then in 1992 came the big SURPRISE baby nobody except God knew was coming...and we became a family of 7, and added on to make the house 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. There was another ten years of full and busy life lived in that home, with my brothers and I all graduating, moving out, getting married. Still the house held many family events, and was the primary gathering place for get togethers. Grandchildren entered the picture, rooms were converted into office space, sewing room, playroom. For ten more years, life continued to be lived fully in that modest home on Creekview Place. During that third decade, Dad retired from his 30+ year career, Mom enjoyed local substitute teaching jobs and providing childcare for grandkids, they watched their baby graduate from high school and start college. There was the whole host of typical life events for them...births of grandchildren, deaths of their mothers, a son's divorce, job & location changes for their children. As the next decade began, they were facing their baby finishing college and moving forward in her life, their other four children were all pretty settled into jobs/careers/houses, Mom retired from subbing, Dad thrived in retirement, but became weary with the responsibilities of keeping up a large house & yard, and they decided it was time. They built that house on Creekview Place in 1982 to raise their family in...and they did a darned good job of that from 1982 to 2015, when their last child left home. While the job of a parent is never completely done, (and my parents had more years of parenting then average, with having the surprise baby when they were 44 & 45 and their oldest child was graduating high school!), their main role in providing a stable home for their growing children is done. The house, so full of memories and moments, of joys and sorrows, of laughter and tears, is ready to become for another family what it was for my family...a home.
This change is bittersweet, but it's important to remember that we are not saying goodbye to the amazing childhood we had on Creekview Place, we are only saying goodbye to the shell that housed the childhood. Granted, the walls of that shell have seen A LOT over the years, but the vital stuff - the moments in time that helped shape each of us five children into who we are today, the memories of holidays and birthdays, of family game nights and sleepovers with friends, of relatives visiting and celebrations being held, right along with the fights and tears, the trials of growing up, the sibling rivalry and bickering - all that is inside each one of us, and it isn't going anywhere. We will say goodbye to the house that was our family home for 34 years, and we will watch another family come in and make some changes and turn that house into their family home, and we will all be okay. We will help Dad and Mom unpack and set up in their new house, and it won't be the same, but it will be good. Change is good. Change like this is vital.
On Sunday evening, the "Original 7" will sit around the family dining table in our home on Creekview Place for the last time, and we will share a meal and memories as we celebrate Dad turning 70 and embarking on this next phase of life. We'll remember the times Dad had to tie us to our kitchen chairs with his mustard-yellow bathrobe belt and the times he took bedroom doors off their hinges as punishment for slamming them. We'll remember sitting around that same table eating birthday cake, followed by watching the slide reel of said birthday child and of the hundreds of games of UNO and May I that were played there. We'll remember when the boys shared a bedroom and fought as brothers do; we'll remember when the girls shared a bedroom and bickered as sisters do, and we'll harass the baby a little because she never had to share a bedroom, and in fact at one point had two rooms and a bathroom all to herself! We'll laugh about the times we siblings pushed our parents to the edge with our bickering and poking at each other. We may recall the times our parents had to go out on the back patio to have a serious conversation without children's listening ears. We'll remember so many good times that happened in that house from 1982 right up until our last big family gathering this Easter...and we'll let go of the not-so-good times, because of course there were plenty of those too! We'll remember the hundred+ other people that spent time in that house over the years - childhood friends, church family, relatives, neighbors, even strangers - who crossed the threshold of that house on Creekview Place, and instantly felt the welcome of a happy, safe home. We'll remember, and we'll celebrate, and then we'll say goodbye. But we'll only be saying goodbye to the house; the home will always be a part of each of us. Dad and Mom are the home, they are what made that house a home, and the unconditional love and support they have provided to us over the years is a legacy that I am honored to call mine, and to share with my siblings.
As I travel down Memory Lane this weekend with my parents and my siblings, I will face the sadness of this monumental change head-on and allow the excitement of my parents' next phase of life to be what I dwell on. I am at peace that this change, at this time, is right. As my parents close their chapter at Creekview Place in Scappoose, and they turn the house over to a young family from church (whom they have known the father of since he was a young boy; also his older brother is the Godfather of my baby sister) and they move their belongings in to a house on Lapine Way in Rock Creek (a townhouse which is three houses down from the townhouse Doug and I lived in exactly 14 years ago as we embarked on our married life together), there is absolutely no denying God's hand at work in every aspect of this change.
