When my son was in kindergarten, and my daughter was in 5th grade, we made, what I thought was our last move. It was into a quiet townhouse on the south side of town and it was a perfect rental for our family.
The first entry on our growth wall was 8/14/2013. Over the next 11 years, we kept track of how much everyone had grown (or shrunk) on that wall.
A documentation of our lives in inches and feet, marked in pencil. We pass by this documentary daily, and normally don’t even notice it.
It has been there as other things in our home changed. Kids grew older. Middle schools and high schools. A graduation and another soon to be on the books. History in the making and an incredible amount of love and dedication and hard work has lead us to today.
In the next couple of weeks, we will need to erase the markings on this wall, and that will be bittersweet. It will not be done without tears on my face. And it will be done for a good reason.
What we thought was our last move, was just a move to expand our view of the world. To set higher expectations, reach audacious goals and to create a life that we were proud of. That move was getting us ready.
We bought a house. Our house. In the middle of the street. A house. A whole wide giant house. With the most beautiful kitchen I have ever laid eyes on. A back yard for Cooper and a deck for early morning work sessions. A house where there will be wine fueled get togethers and BBQ fed 4th of July celebrations. A house that the kids will know as “home”, that will stay. A house like grandma’s farm. A home. Our home.
On December 30th, 2024, we will sit down to sign a million copies of paper in exchange for the future. And the growth line chart will be sadly, happily, erased from the wall. We won’t need to create another in the new house, because there isn’t a wall in the world that is big enough to capture the hash marks of the future.