This week, we organized massive piles of memories for our yard sale on March 1st. Today, we put Belle’s nursery bedding up for sale, and I smiled through tears as my too grown-up girls played in the next room.  In 4 weeks, our house goes on the market.

This home, where Madeline learned to talk and climb, where we brought Belle home, where our marriage became stronger, where I crashed after countless nights of residency and fellowship calls learning how to be a doctor,  and where we became a family. Our yard – with its rocks that Madeline insists holds fossilized T-Rex prints, with its perfect light and memories of snowball fights, violet fields, safari expeditions, princess knights and tadpole parties.

I am excited about the adventures that lie ahead  – about new homes and new yards with monkeys and views of the Great Rift Valley. We bought our plane tickets on Friday, and we fly from Birmingham on September 22, 2014.  Today, though, I am just so grateful for this life we have built –  for the joy and struggle and triumph this place and these things represent.