Feels Like Coming Home

To say that these first few weeks of 2015 have been difficult is a bit of an understatement. Allow me to give you the Reader’s Digest version…

Stevie and I started talking about expanding our family and buying a bigger house, then found out almost immediately we were expecting. We went into a bit of a panic mode trying to get the house ready and listed. We put it on the market just after Thanksgiving, and accepted an offer on Christmas Eve. We went into panic mode again searching for a new house, a place that could be our family’s forever home.

Somehow, we found one that immediately felt like home. We dove in, and crossed our fingers.

Stevie single-handedly moved almost every box in our entire house while I packed a bit between bouts of exhaustion and morning sickness.

Work was piling up and we were both so exhausted by the time we got home at night that we could barely function. But somehow we did—we packed boxes, went to parent/teacher conferences, celebrated Cadence’s 5^th birthday and threw her a party with her school friends, stayed up late into the night, and woke most mornings feeling like we hadn’t slept at all.

Then the stress hit, and the sickness. For three whole weeks we passed around the flu, and then Cadence got hit with an ear infection and pneumonia.

We were hitting our bottom, and we began to wonder for the first time if we were doing the right thing.

And yet, in the midst of all the stress and the sickness and the worry and the waiting, it’s been an exhilarating ride. Somehow, in spite of the hardships, we have continued to be blessed beyond belief—by our amazing friends, our supportive family, our understanding co-workers, and four beautiful strangers who entered our lives quite unexpectedly and who will live in our hearts (and maybe even our new home) forever.

We learned during our negotiations that the house we wanted was being sold out of a trust, that the four grown children had lost their father, and were now burdened with the task of selling their childhood home. We knew how hard it must be for them, and yet throughout the entire process, they were fantastic to work with, and even gave us the green light to move our belongings in the day before the official closing so we didn’t have to store our things in a moving truck or storage unit and move every thing twice.

We wanted to thank them somehow. As the closing date drew nearer, it became important to let them know how grateful we were that they were entrusting their home to us, the very place where all of their memories began.

I started writing, and then I blinked and it was time to load the truck and haul the boxes and sign the papers.

And suddenly it was real, and the house was ours. And then the seller’s agent was handing us a giant basket packed with everything we love, gifts to welcome us home, and a letter that touched us so deeply that it now hangs in a frame in our entryway.

And I hope they won’t mind that I share it here, because it has already become an important part of our own family story…

Dear Romano Family,

Since were are the only family who has lived at 2010 Devonshire Drive until today, we thought about sharing some of the wonderful experiences our family had since we moved in on Labor Day 1972. However, the more we thought about it, we decided our specific memories aren’t as important as the new memories you will be making here.

Still, what is important for you to know is this that the house has always contained much love and laughter. Four children grew up here. We played raucously in the yard, held spirited debates at the family dinner table, hung our Christmas stockings on the mantel with joyful anticipation, cheered loudly at the TV watching our father’s favorite football team lose more often than win, and whispered our prayers to our mom and dad before kissing them goodnight. When we grew up and moved away, some near and some far, the one thing we all knew with certainty was that this house was always home.

When our father died and we decided it was time to sell the house, it was our fervent wish that another family would buy it and it would be filled with children again. We think somehow you felt that wish when you decided this was the house you wanted. We confess we’ve read a bit about your family on the Internet, and we’re grateful Cadence and her new sister or brother will do some, if not all, of their growing up here.

We’ve left a few tangible things to welcome you, but more than that, know that all of our best wishes for happiness and prosperity go to you. We hope you will come to love this house as much as we have and that this will be a place where you spend many wonderful years together.

Welcome Home,

The Four Wood Children

There is no doubt, we’ve come home, and to you, the Wood children, who spent an evening together this past week saying goodbye to your childhood home, thank you.

Thank you.

You may never know how much your beautiful letter means to us, or how much we loved your home, our new home, the moment we first drove onto the street and walked through the front door. We are so excited to begin our new life together here, and we just wanted you to know that we will love it and care for it as much as you and your family have. We imagined that you made a lot of great memories there, and we know now for sure that you did.

We’ve already begun to do the same.

Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to begin writing a brand new chapter in our lives. We can’t wait to see where it takes us, and we wish you all the best writing yours.

Love,

Steven, Lori, Cadence, Henry, and Electra Romano