When a Home Turns Back Into Just a House
Empty walls where pictures once hung. White walls that were once covered in family pictures and children’s art work. Tiny handprints that have to get wiped off and painted over. Rooms that once held toys, special family memories, and late night cries from a baby who only wanted her Mama.
The harsh reality that sets in when you realize the house you called your home for the last few years isn’t going to be home anymore.
This is my life though. The life of a military family.
Our family moves so often and calls so many places our home, that I’m not even sure if I know where my heart is anymore. I know I’ve left bits and pieces of it in places though. That house close to the mountains where I brought my oldest daughter home. That house close to the Alamo where I brought two more babies in two different years home. Even that house where the wind never stops blowing where I brought the last little missing piece to our family home to.
These are the houses that I once called home that became just a house again once we left.
I could never exactly put my finger on it but I know that these houses hold special stories if they could talk. If you could tap into the things it’s seen and heard, it would tell you all about the families that once called it home. Some of us military families get lucky and call one place home for longer than others. Some of us though say a quick hello to our homes and quickly leave them to become houses once more.
These houses are never too far from our thoughts though. They hold our memories. They were once apart of us, as we held the keys to a front door that unlocked a safe haven and a peace only our family knew.
As I currently look at packing boxes covering my floors, a garage full of oversized bins, and white (well beige I guess) bare walls I’m reminded that even though this house was my home for a short time, the memories live on inside our minds for far longer. You’re never too far away from that time you taught your daughter the moon phases in the backyard of the house you called your home. The time you were so tired from newborn days you almost put a scoop of formula into a cup of coffee in the kitchen of what used to be your home. Or the time you brought a newborn baby home to the house that you called home where your husband should have been but a short tour overseas and a global pandemic happened at the same time.
Empty walls stare back at me.
Almost boxed up rooms that held so much laughter and tears.
Toys in piles and not put back where they belong.
Messes here and there that need to be cleaned up in our home because this home will become just a house to us once more.
And once again in a short while, a new house with white walls will hold our family pictures and my children’s artwork. Tiny handprints will stay put, at least for a little bit. Rooms will hold toys, special family memories, and night cries from a toddler who only wants her Mama. This is our life; the life of a military family always on the move and always ready to unlock that new front door to a house that will become their home for just right now.