I mean, I understand why Ryder asks us every month or so. Sometimes, he asks differently, “WHEN are we moving?”

In Ryder’s 6.5 years, we have lived in 6 houses. In fact, usually, this time of year we are packing up our house or looking for a new one to move into in January.

It’s been a necessary part of our life for one reason or another to move more often than any sane person would agree to.

Our current house is one I LOVE. We bought it last year, and moved in just in time for Christmas. We are talking moving truck – stack boxes in corner – decorate for Christmas. I decorated for Christmas before I decorated my house in earnest. (Christmas is everything, guys.)

So we’ve been here a year. 

In 2016, we chose a word for the year – a word we hoped would dictate and protect the state of our family – STEADY.

Ryder is in 1st grade and Jayne has just one more year before Kindergarten. I began this year hoping and praying that when the year was up, there would be no moving boxes or stuff purging or disruption of the routine for these crazy little gingers. Just a little steadiness to temper all the change.

My husband lived in the same house from the day he came home from the hospital until he moved out to form our new unit. The heights of all 4 kids and all 10 grandkids are marked on the wall in the bathroom. I’ve lived in 4 states and too many houses to count on 2 hands.

Richard and I agreed we want steadiness for our kids. We want peace in their lives. We want them to experience the feeling of having a home.

I’m sitting here outside our home watching the seasons change. Snow is falling all around to cover what was once green (well, kind of green . . . guys, watering is expensive . . .) It’s amazing to me how the place I sit is the same place I always sit, but it looks so different this morning – marked brightly by the signs of the changing season. Peaceful change.

You can have both change and peace. Growth and steadiness.

I want steadiness for my kids, but I don’t want that to be confused with SAMENESS.

While home can mean many things, I am so thankful for a physical place my kids can form their world within. The value this anchor provides is the ability to clearly see the change we experience here. Like the wall on which we mark changing heights, the steadiness and peace we find here means very little if it doesn’t pave the way for change and growth.

I want growth for my kids. I want growth for my husband. I want growth for me.

So, little Ryder – no, we are not moving. 

But I pray we are changing – deeply and truly, without reservation – and I can’t wait to see the evidence of it in changing seasons. 

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! – Galatians 5:22-23