My House

I now live in a yellow house. It's bright and sunny and new. When we bought our house in the summer of '93 our choice was driven financially and so when the house we found was gray there wasn't a lot of wiggle room to purchase AND paint. So we lived in a little gray house which was fine in the sunshine...HOWEVER winter is gray in Seattle, the driveway was gray and we routinely said, "We need to paint when we can." Chris often said, "We need to paint something bright, a nice yellow to chase away the winter blues." It had been our plan to celebrate his surgery completion with a new coat of paint on our house and, of course, it was planned to be yellow. Therefore, when it came time to paint, the color was not the decision, only the timing of the paint job. The painter wasn't even the decision, Chris wanted a man from our former church of whom he thought very highly, Deane Brotherton. So, yellow paint in hand, Deane has worked brightness into our lives. I know Chris is pleased.

School is over for the summer. Eric, our baby, is now a rising freshman. High school seemed worlds away for so long, preschool seemed like yesterday but this fall he starts at Kentridge and he's over six feet tall. Emily is officially a college sophomore, sporting a GPA that has me bursting with pride, despite a very difficult freshman year for our family. And life moves forward in our little yellow house...different than before, still with tears at times, but forward and with promise and hope.

I truly cherish my little yellow house, I cherish the two wonderful people who share it with me, I cherish the memories it holds and the future it will see. God is present and holds and carries and nurtures and speaks, even when our ability to listen is minimized. God is the constant that makes life work and I'm grateful. I cherish that most of all. Blessings DO abound, I am just slow to count them at times.

I now live in a yellow house...and the sun still shines above the Seattle clouds...and God still shines on us all.

Grace for your journey,
Leigh