I made two million school lunches at my kitchen island here.

Sadie called me mama for the first time upstairs in her room two weeks after coming home from Ethiopia here.

I sat in our master bedroom closet late one night reading a book on Lupus, realizing I had the disease and praying I would never be sick enough to take the meds outlined in the book. I eventually had to take all of those meds while living here.

Sam and I planned epic trips to Morocco and Thailand and Sri Lanka and more sitting in our living room here.

Sam recovered from knee surgery here.

We created and tended multiple gardens, planted trees and saved our side yard shed from flooding here.

I wrote the letter to the orphanage we were adopting our children from while sitting at my desk in our loft here.

We hosted big parties and small intimate gatherings in our backyard and around our kitchen table here.

We lost and miraculously found our passports here.

We cried with our friends here.

All four of our kids became runners here.

We got our first and only dog here.

Our kids personalities developed here.

We started new jobs multiple times over here.

We bore our testimonies to each other, confided our hopes and doubts and fears to each other, fought and forgave each other, laughed til we cried, listened and tried and worked here.

We lived in every single corner of our 2818 square feet, found ways to reorganize and redefine and redo each and every room multiple times over here.

We broke windows and caught things on fire and sliced our fingers, healed from broken bones, slipped and fell and passed out and survived all of it right here.

Sam trained hundred and hundreds of hours for his 100 mile ultra race here.

Most of our favorite people in the whole world have slept here, eaten here, sat here with us over 12+ years here.

Simon’s peanut allergy was cured here.

I went into remission from Lupus here.

Two of our kids learned to walk and talk and potty trained here.

Our kids learned to cook and clean and work hard here.

All of our kids entered kindergarten from here.

We watched thousands of sunsets together, pointed at rainbows over Rockville Park, ran laughing in the rain on our patio, hit piñatas off the play structure, held endless trampoline flip contests, trash talked while playing bocce ball, shot rockets, threw a football back and forth and used every inch of yard afforded us on our plot here.

We changed some of our social and political views here and allowed ourselves to keep evolving here.

We experienced an earthquake, fearfully watched Atlas fire and quarantined during a pandemic here.

In April 2020, Sam and I stood in our bathroom and discussed moving from here…

In June 2020 we picked a house and chose a new HERE.

This house held all of our biggest, boldest dreams, nursed us through some of our most profound sorrows and stretched to fit everything else in between. 5089 Grass Valley Court was a canvas for our family. It was a dream come true when we were handed the keys in October 2007, a newly formed family of only nine years.

This was never just a house. From Day 1 it was a home. It was always comfortable and safe and warm and it was all of those things because that is what our family put into it. Thank you, house. You were the holder of so much love and joy and we will love you forever. It is now time to create a new here.