Tomorrow we get the keys to our new home. It is a beautiful home and I am grateful to have the ability to buy a home like this. It marks a bit of a change in our family's life as well. Something I will get into in greater detail in another blog post, but a few years ago my husband and I went through a really challenging time in our marriage. A part of that rough time meant that we had to sell our home and start over financially. This wasn't an easy choice and it saw us move to a temporary rental and then a home where we rented until we qualified to buy...it was a lot of stress (I acknowledge that there are significantly more challenging places to be, but this was a lot of stress for us) and it meant having our older daughter switch schools (something that was very emotional for me as I had moved so much as a child and I wanted her to feel rooted and stable). This stress proved to be very significant on my body and my reproductive system went through a serious shock....normally someone with a consistent and regular monthly cycle, I was suddenly passing blood clots the size of a plum on an hourly basis for months at a time, all day and night. I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and low iron levels. My body was rebelling against all the stress we had been through...leading up to marriage counselling, making that choice, participating in the sessions, deciding what was healthiest for our family, and ultimately deciding we really wanted to stay together but had to make some difficult choices in order to do that. Fast forward three years and we are in a much better financial position and even more importantly we are also in a much stronger place in our relationship. So we have decided to move. We are moving to a neighborhood that is quiet with beautiful wooded trails and an opportunity for our daughter to go back to school with her old friends. It feels good, and it feels exciting. Funnily enough though, it is bittersweet. I am sad to leave the home we have had the last three years. It has a beautiful yard with mature trees, and though I know it sounds a little silly, it was this home that gave us our fresh start. It was there when we needed a win, it has housed us for three Christmas' and three years of birthdays. It has seen us encounter some deep lows and dark times and it has seen us persevere. I hope that the people that are buying it treat it well and feel good about their purchase. And I look forward to this next chapter for our family.
-Amanda
