Ode to the GV house

It's only fitting that it's a rainy evening... that's pretty much how my heart feels right now after taking my last walk through what has been my family's home for the last 7 years. With the official "closing" and key hand-over tomorrow at 9am, obviously it's completely empty now, but the rooms are somehow still terribly full of memories.

• The entryway foyer and circular staircase where we took countless family pictures and my sister's prom pics.
• The dining room that was initially painted a hideous Pepto pink until Mom corrected the painters and they made it a much nicer shade of red.  Tons of buffets were served in there, as were huge family/holiday meals.  And more recently, our first non-wedding picture as a family of 7.
• The "powder room" with the sink cabinet that I picked out at Transit Damaged Freight... my one claim-to-fame in the whole building process.
• The hot tub where my boyfriend asked my dad for permission to marry me.
• The "crawl space" that we had to wake up at the dreadfully early hour of 8:30am one holiday (Memorial Day?) morning to paint, and where a few years later we did P90X together as a family.
• The basement guest bedroom that hosted several of my former youth leaders as they were in stages of transition, as well as my fiance when he first moved to the USA.
• The funky angled section of the ceiling in the living room where Mom's friend painted "Soli Deo Gloria" in a beautiful calligraphy - only to later admit that she was dreadfully afraid of heights.
• The amazing stone fireplace that served as family-Christmas-picture setting for us and at least one other family over the years.
• The custom-made "picture frame" out of moulding in the entryway where we deliberated for the whole building process and at least a year after we moved in as to which Bible verse we should have put there (we found another friend/artist to paint it though, since it was even higher up!) and ended up with a sword and shield from Toledo, Spain.
• The closet at the top of the back stairwell that was always full of extra school supplies, random fabric bolts for the curtains mom always wanted to make (and eventually did, mostly) and the pictures and albums that were always in a state of disarray.
• The Media Room that inevitably ended up 10 degrees warmer than you wanted it by the time the movie was over.
• The closets in my sister's and my rooms that were supposed to be square, but then had to be L-shaped because the architect had originally forgotten to include room for the ductwork.
• My room - purple, because I love it - where I was sitting when my cute friend from Spain finally found a program that would work for us to audio-chat (Skype - before the video years), and the intercom system that I used to refuse to come down to dinner immediately that night because I was actually TALKing to him.  
• The built-in bookshelves that still didn't actually hold my entire collection.  
• The huge picture window that looked out onto the street (with no panes or screens, so the view was always crystal-clear), and the side window that overlooked the neighbor's lake.

Clearly there's no sense bemoaning the end of an era - it certainly wasn't perfect, after all - but it is a reminder that we only walk through life once.  Goal: to make sure it was a life worth living, full of love and honoring to the Lord.  My prayer is that the house can continue to be used to minister to others in the future, in the same way it did in the past.

Now, I must look forward to the Lord's "plans to prosper [me] and not to harm [me], plans to give [me] a hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11b).   If only those plans included calling in sick to work tomorrow... ;)

Soli Deo Gloria.