When we moved to this town 25 years ago, I was bulging with baby #5 and Ron was kicking off a new phase of his career having decided that being a principal was too distant from teaching.
Over these years, we have added four children to our family, renovated bathrooms and bedrooms and kitchens, played many games of clue and memory match and scrabble and watched many baseball games, music recitals, dance performances and arguments.
We have had lots of frustrations and many deep experiences of joy. We have wept with intense sadness and sobbed with happiness.
As we celebrated Canada Day yesterday, Ron and I watched the fireworks from our second story window. Bursts of color with sparks flying and then simply clouds and sky until the next glorious explosion.
So much like our lives: bursts of joy amid many plain moments. I remember many of those plain moments: holding a baby close to my heart while breathing in the sweet scent of a newborn, hugging my teenage son as he graduated, sitting beside my tender-hearted husband on a hard church pew with wonder at all these little children crowding around us, reading a story out loud and noticing more and more children gathering on the couch to listen, listening to the sincere child's prayer for me to have fun while I was in labor, walking hand in hand with a child across the field to school, watching the kids have a water fight in the rain....and losing to mother nature!
There have been many plain experiences of talking in the grocery stores or school hallways or church classrooms with the many friends we have met and grown to love. We have shared our collective tears of joy and sadness and have opened up our hearts to the love that has been offered to us. We gave away our hearts to many of you and have been so grateful for the quiet moments we have spent individually with each of you.
These and many more plain moments have made up the joy that I have experienced over the years I have spent in Lacombe.
As I bid farewell to the place I have called home for so many years, I will have another plain moment as we drive the U-Haul truck up to the last set of lights in Lacombe and drive off without even a chance to look in the review mirror as I focus on merging the big load onto the highway ahead.
Over these years, we have added four children to our family, renovated bathrooms and bedrooms and kitchens, played many games of clue and memory match and scrabble and watched many baseball games, music recitals, dance performances and arguments.
We have had lots of frustrations and many deep experiences of joy. We have wept with intense sadness and sobbed with happiness.
So much like our lives: bursts of joy amid many plain moments. I remember many of those plain moments: holding a baby close to my heart while breathing in the sweet scent of a newborn, hugging my teenage son as he graduated, sitting beside my tender-hearted husband on a hard church pew with wonder at all these little children crowding around us, reading a story out loud and noticing more and more children gathering on the couch to listen, listening to the sincere child's prayer for me to have fun while I was in labor, walking hand in hand with a child across the field to school, watching the kids have a water fight in the rain....and losing to mother nature!
There have been many plain experiences of talking in the grocery stores or school hallways or church classrooms with the many friends we have met and grown to love. We have shared our collective tears of joy and sadness and have opened up our hearts to the love that has been offered to us. We gave away our hearts to many of you and have been so grateful for the quiet moments we have spent individually with each of you.
These and many more plain moments have made up the joy that I have experienced over the years I have spent in Lacombe.
As I bid farewell to the place I have called home for so many years, I will have another plain moment as we drive the U-Haul truck up to the last set of lights in Lacombe and drive off without even a chance to look in the review mirror as I focus on merging the big load onto the highway ahead.
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