It’s taken me awhile to write and post this one.  I don’t want to dwell too much but at the same time, I don’t want to push the feelings aside either.  A couple weeks ago, Emma, Brooks and I watched a touching little movie on a Saturday night.  Afterward, we picked up the photobook of Brody, our little yorkie who was hit by a car in VA.  Emma almost immediately walked away and climbed the stairs with her head down.  I followed her and found her sobbing on the bed.  “Why did we have to leave Virginia Mommy?”  “I miss Viriginia!”, she kept repeating.  I tried everything to make her feel better, keeping a close watch on not letting my own sadness about leaving our home in VA. come out and make her feel even worse. 

It must be so hard to be so young and have to make a move, especially from a place you loved so much — your first home.  What am I saying? It was so hard for me too.  We all loved this home in Virginia — for its beautiful surroundings , but mostly for all of the joyful times we spent there…..sitting under the 30 foot cherry tree to pose for family photos, our annual Maypole party, the summer the cicadas invaded, running and running and running all over the yard with our dogs, inspecting the ground for the first crocuses of the spring, pressing the Virginia bluebells between pieces of paper, the hours of tearing off years of vines from the dogwoods, the smell of the 70 year old boxwoods around the driveway on a cool evening, swinging for hours on Emma’s swing trying to touch the branches, dinner parties with our dear friends, birthday parties, cookouts under the stars, watching the sun rise over the hills from our bedroom, the way the sun streaked across the backyard at the end of the day, the night Emma first noticed the moon and asked her dad to get it for her, her first steps, playing “chase” in the house, playing with her dolls in the sunroom, sitting in the kitchen on the couch next to the fire, dancing to “ABCDEFG…” in the living room, the day the 18 wheel dump truck delivered the 50 tons of belgian blocks, Brooks laying each of them along the long driveway edge, our special flagpole, getting married in the beautiful chestnut grove with our family and friends surrounding us,  spending our first night in our new home after a year of searching for this perfect spot…… bringing our darling Emma home for the first time…..  All of these memories and more flashed through my mind as my darling daughter lay sobbing next to me. 

It was then that I felt such a wave of emotion, thinking that yes, eventhough we left this special, beautiful place behind, we are in and always will be in a beautiful special “place”.   It was then that I attempted to calm Emma by explaining the old saying “Home is where the heart is”.   I told her that I would be happy anywhere in the world as long as I was there with her and Daddy.   She looked at me and we then both cried together.  Tears of joy.  We are so very blessed to have eachother and such special memories together.

The photos above are two particularly memorable shots from VA.:  one is a shot of Emma and her dogs (including the little angel Brody) under the magical 30 foot cherry tree, the other is of Emma lying in the grass one Spring day in her little pink tutu.  I just love the look on her face….it sort of says it all….