offer to purchase

Since Tim signed his contract to reenlist in July of 2001, we have listed our little house for sale countless times, with no less than 5 different agents. We have brought two sons home from the hospital to live in it, taught three children to walk across that kitchen floor, moved out of it once, had tenants in for 15 months, left it empty for 4 months, burned a trailer full of stuff on the way to move back in; endured seemingly endless separations for deployments, faked smiling through holidays and children's birthday parties alone, immensely enjoyed every celebration that Tim was there, waited through several long dark nights of passing hurricanes, and muddled our way through more than our fair share of do-it-yourself home repairs and projects. We spent many, many anxious Friday evenings waiting for Tim to return from a long week's work at Lejeune, and just as many Sunday evenings in the quiet loneliness after he would leave to drive the 100 miles or so back to work. The house has been a haven, a shelter to return to whenever we were faced with a separation. That's what makes it home, instead of just a house.
And it's over now. We have received an offer to purchase our house on Ridgeway Lane! Full asking price is more than we were hoping for. It seems like a dream to me still. But I know the new owners are only buying the four walls and the roof and the dirt and grass. The memories, we'll take those with us. I am sure we will miss the house, and I am sure we will face more separation in the few years left on Tim's contract. But our shelter is each other now. It's as if our safety net is gone, but we still have our parachute.