Uprooting

Our move was pretty exhausting, physically and emotionally. We found it hard to say goodbye to our home. When we bought the house we honestly thought, "Next stop, assisted living." When we moved to Newark, we thought we were there to stay. We made emotional investments in our home and the city of Newark, which made both very hard to leave. We will miss the great people we came to know and see everyday.

A change in career goals and rising gas prices prompted us to put the house on the market. We listed just before the bursting of the housing market bubble was felt on the local level in Newark. A long year on and off the market lulled us into an acceptance that the house was not going to sell anytime soon and that we really didn't have to think about moving very seriously.

Then a last-minute showing turned into an offer with a tight time line. And then we held our breath during the inspections, appraisals, and clearing of the newly erected hurdles for the buyers' financing. And we held our breath during a few hiccups that seemed as if they were going to dismantle the whole deal.

Then we closed. We looked at each other in disbelief. I could see in Erin's welling eyes that this wasn't what she signed up for. We had talked about it, but now we were really packing up and pulling out. We were selling our home: the place where Henry learned to walk and ride a balance bike, the place where Arthur first sat in a high chair, the place where Xola chewed through the drywall and ate insulation as a pup, the place where we celebrated with friends and family, the place where we mourned lost loved ones in private, the place where I came home for lunch everyday, the place where Erin's flowers grow and her goldfish swim, the place we still think of as home.



And the next day, we moved. With the help of family and some very special friends, we packed up a truck and moved to Columbus. We are renting a house: a house that will help us accomplish our goals, a house that will move us a step closer to finding a new place to call home.

Last weekend we passed through Newark on the way back from our friends' wedding, and it was very hard to look in the windows of our home and see the new family painting the walls and making our house their home.