Repotting Our Family

Jacob reading to Jordan in our new home

Spring is around the corner and therefore it is time to nurture the plants growing around the house. The best way to take care of the little green sprouts in your life is to give them a larger pot with fresh soil and fertilizer. Gently remove the plant from its current pot, shake off the old dirt, trim the branches and then place it in a new container. The process of repotting your plants will give them optimal conditions to expand their roots, allowing them to become firmly planted in the soil, so they can grow into the beautiful trees or flowers they were meant to be.

I feel that the act of moving into a new home does to a person what repotting does to a plant. You take the time to purge the old, trim the excess and only take the best and most necessary things with you. Once in your new home, you can start anew with a fresh and renewed outlook on things. This is the time to spread your roots down deep, become ingrained in your community and improve your sense of self.

I realize that I referred to our upcoming move in a previous blog post as “uprooting our family”, which in this particular situation is not correct. Yes, we moved. We took the boys from the only home most of them have ever known, packed (a majority of) their toys and moved into a new house that we now refer to as “home”. The entire process may seem harsh and really hard to digest, especially when you are a little two year old boy. However, I have never felt better about a move in my life. “Uprooting”, to me would be if we were relocated in the middle of the night by the witness protection program. However, our boys were part of every step in our “repotting” process. We have actually all enjoyed watching this house be built before our very eyes.

From the moment I stepped foot in our new house, I had an overwhelming sense of “home” surge through my body. Although it was my first time in the house, I felt that I had come back to a familiar place. Somewhere with history to be made, holidays to be shared, laughter to fill the rooms and memories to be made. Granted the house is newly constructed and we chose all the decorating details, so it was literally built for our family. But still, the sense of “home” was overpowering, like the glass slipper fitting effortlessly on Cinderella’s delicate foot. This house fits our family perfectly.

I feel blessed that we are able to provide our boys with a home that will contain all of their soccer trophies, piles of stinky shoes, glittery arts and craft projects, superhero t-shirts, dog-eared books about dinosaurs. And later on, our closets and drawers will be packed with autographed year books, wrinkled concert and movie ticket stubs, half-finished homework projects, random out-of-tune music instruments, and sports equipment that have seen better days.

Our new home is also where my husband and I will grow as a couple. We will cultivate our hobbies and interests, and together grow as a unity. We will continue to respect each other, support new ventures and feel overwhelming love as gravity takes ahold of our bodies. Our faces may show the years, our hearts know the journey we have traveled together and therefore our home will be filled with love.

Being able to gently repot our family leaves me happy and thankful, as each of the four boys settle into our new home at their own pace.