A Bittersweet Goodbye

Well, as of 4:45 today, we are no longer Maine property owners. I’ll admit—it was harder than I thought it would be. The reality really hit me this morning as we said goodbye to our house for the final time.

We’re not the type of people who usually struggle with change. In fact, most of the time, we embrace it. Over the years, we’ve lived in many different homes, but a few have been especially hard to leave: my childhood home in Walker Basin, California, our place in Winston Salem, NC, and now, Maine. I feel like I’ve left a little piece of myself in each of those spots, and they’ll always be a part of me.

I’ll never forget the day we first pulled into our Maine property. We’d been driving for what felt like days, towing a trailer full of our belongings, with our two Rottweilers in the back seat. The ground was blanketed in snow, and the little cabin almost seemed lost in it all, so small and quiet. Today, as we left, we had that very same trailer packed up again, but only one Rottweiler with us—the other forever in our hearts. The house we left behind felt so different from the one we arrived to. It felt like home.

It’s hard to let go of the dreams I had for that place, but deep down, we know this is the right move. We’re looking forward to being closer to family and making a new home together. I pray that the new owners will love the place as much as we did, and that they’ll tend to those 300 Christmas trees! Who knows—maybe someday we’ll come back and pick one out when they’re ready.

My “something good” today is the peace in knowing that, even though it was hard to leave the home we built, our true home is with each other—and that can be anywhere. Plus, as Chris said, since we have a camper, we’ll never be homeless—just houseless! (Lol.)

Here’s to a new chapter. I think it’s going to be a good one.

-We had a little time to kill before the signing so we got enjoy this beautiful spot near Skowhegan, ME