We're having to move. After living in a house 11 years, it doesn't matter if one rents, as we do, or is buying, it becomes yours in so many ways. The walls painted our favorite colors. The arch over the front sidewalk that finally is covered in roses. The back yard was a sea of grass when we came here but now is filled with mature rose bushes celebrating Spring with roses of every scent, color, size and shape. A compost bin in the corner, the wood pile that ebbs and flows with the seasons. There's a playhouse that was given to Gemma when she was three. A pond we dug ourselves where the turtle suns itself and the animals quench their thirst. The chickens and bunnies we've raised from babies, the coops and bunnie hutches Gemma helped us build.The fruitless mulberry in the backyard has grown from a stick waving in the breeze into a giving tree, supplying much needed shade for our family and our animals. Its branches have become a play area for our granddaughter and her friends and a place of safety and rest for the neighborhood birds. Swings hang from its branches and we had hopes of building a fort around it for Gemma and her brother. Maybe that's the most bitter sweet aspect of leaving this place, Simon won't grow up here as Gemma has done. Oh the plans we had for the future. But just as the past 11 years have been an adventure that unfolded in ways we'd never foreseen (I never dreamed we'd have chickens) the future holds adventures of its own. A new place means new ideas and new explorations. What might we try next? And we aren't leaving everything behind, most of our stuff is coming with us. We'll have to say goodbye to the plants we've planted, the furry friends we've buried but the chickens and their coops will go to a family member. We're taking the dogs, the cats, bunnies, the turtles, the guinea pigs, the cockatiel, fish and hampsters. How did we accumulate so many life forms? Everything in the house goes with us and the memories go with us in our hearts. We'll have lots of stories to tell Simon about the house on Whitley Dr. and he'll be a part of the new ones we make wherever we end up. Its just like I told Gemma, we're leaving a house not our home, because wherever we all are is home.