You all probably don’t know this about me, but I love The Beatles.  Ever since my parents let me watch the Beatles Anthology special that ran on ABC when I was in 5th grade, I’ve been hooked.  One song in particular has been running through my head this past week.  And not for it’s themes of a couple who can’t agree on anything.  60% of the time Zac and I agree every time.  No, it was for the oft repeated phrase from it’s title: Hello, Goodbye.  There is a part about one minute in where that phrase is repeated over and over.  Two words.  Complete opposites.  Both completely and accurately describing my fragile emotional state of the past week.

You see, this past week, we said a huge “Goodbye”.  A goodbye to our home of the past four years.  “Four years?!?!”, you might say.  “Come on, that’s not THAT long!”, you might say.  “Get over it!”, you might but probably shouldn’t say because, well, come on.  It’s just plan rude.  But, yes only four years.  Only four years, but so many memories.  It was the first time we built a home.  Previous to yesterday, no one but us had inhabited it’s walls.  When we built it, we referred to it as our “forever” home.  Meaning we would raise our children in it and send them off to college and welcome them back with full baskets of laundry and hungry mouths.  Four years ago, we hadn’t the foggiest idea that we would have a third kid.  Much less that we would be selling everything and going on a year long journey!  We brought that third child home to that house and nursed him and rocked him and watched him smile and coo and learn to walk.  We fell in love with Phoenix in that house.  And the older two kids both posed proudly by our chalkboard easel with huge, ear to ear grins ready for their first ride on the school bus.  Their first day of kindergarten.  But, for whatever reason, this crazy call of the open road got a hold of our hearts.  And over the course of the last two and a half months, we purged.  We donated boxes upon boxes.  We took load upon load to the dumpster.  We sold trinket after trinket.  We posted “Come grab some free stuff!” photos on facebook.  And God sent us the perfect buyer at just the perfect time.  A buyer who wanted to purchase almost all of our furniture!  I mean, really Lord, You outdid Yourself on that one!  We felt so blessed and grateful that we didn’t have to store or sell all of that furniture!  All of the craziness and chaos of the moving keeps you so busy.  You hardly get a chance to think about what you’re actually doing: leaving a place where you have sewn so many memories into your heart strings.  But, yesterday as I walked through the empty house, alone, it was like a slide show of memories flooding my brain with beautiful pictures.  Pictures of my children playing.  Pictures of our friends over for game nights.  Pictures of laughter and of love.  Pictures even of some hard times that brought on much growth and wisdom.  Even now I am pushing back the tears.  But in that moment, they flowed freely onto someone else’s floors.  Not ours anymore.

Goodbye.

And, this past week, we said a huge “Hello!”.  Hello to the unknown!  Hello to homeschooling and constant travel and working from the road and facing life’s everyday obstacles in a house on wheels.  We got into the RV yesterday and STILL, after all that purging and selling and donating and discarding, we STILL had too much stuff.  We didn’t know where to put it all!  And one has to wonder, how is it possible?!?!?  If there is anything I’m learning so far, it’s that I’ll really think more carefully before bringing anything into my home.  We have come across countless items that we never used or hardly ever used.  Or things that fit into the category of “I bought it was because it was kinda cute and I thought I could find a place for it”.  Wha!??!?!  Before I purchase anything in the future, there will be a full interview process of why it deserves a place in our house and then there will be a 2 week waiting period before I decide if we really need the applicant in question.  So here we are.  Sitting on our bed in the RV.  Looking at a few bins and boxes that still haven’t found their way into certain place yet.  Hanging pictures on what little wall space we have.  Dreaming of what is to come in September.  Daydreaming about all of the new memories we will make on our journeys to new and exciting places.  Jumping forward into this crazy dream-turned-reality we have made for ourselves.

Hello.