805 Spring Brook Lane

Today my parents are moving out of their house of 14 years! They are getting to build their dream house in Georgetown, and I could not be happier for them to be able to do that. BUT, the part where we say goodbye to the home that holds so many memories is very hard.  I still remember the day that we moved into the red brick, two-story house in the middle of the cul-de-sac.  Emily and I were picked up from school that spring and I remember coming inside and eating a snack with Emily in the kitchen.  I was in awe of how big it was (compared to the little bitty rent house we lived in previously) and how amazing the backyard was.  We had a bar area in the kitchen, and Hunter was so little when we moved in that he could walk underneath it and hold his arms above his head, barely skimming the bar counter.  It's crazy to think how much growth has occurred in this house! Some of my favorite memories of being in our home are:

• Christmas mornings, coming down the stairs in our p.j.'s and opening gifts, always having a big breakfast together at the kitchen table.
• Our little black schnauzer, Drew
• sliding down the stairs in sleeping bags (especially Kristina)
•  learning how to cook in the kitchen and making pancakes with Hunter on Saturday mornings
• SO many birthday parties and slumber parties with lots of loud little girls who stayed up way too late
• receiving my favorite Christmas gift ever when I was 13- a little black kitten named Noelle
• surprising Emily with a brand new car for Christmas one year
• high school days when there were always friends over doing something
• my junior year of high school we had 3 or 4 days of "ice days" from school- I read the book "Dear John" cover to cover and we made smores by the fire every night
• being named homecoming queen and prom queen
• making football t-shirts, homecoming mums and another football season stuff with Cara
• coming home after Trevor proposed and telling my family all about it
• spending my last summer as a Thompson in the house with my family
• sleeping in my bed the night before our wedding and soaking it all in

I will always have such fond memories of this house and the people and things that went in and out.  The family that is moving in is a young couple with a baby girl.  When I think about how their family will grow and thrive during their time at the house, I know that will grow to love that home just as much as we did. They will get to have first day of school pictures on the porch, bring home new babies, and have fun memories of birthdays and Christmas.  It makes me hope that one day Trevor and I will have a home that I have loved as much as this house.

Now that I've made myself cry while typing this, I will leave you with lyrics from Miranda Lambert's "The House That Built Me"
I know they say you can’t go home again
I just had to come back one last time
Ma’am I know you don’t know me from Adam
But these handprints on the front steps are mine

Up those stairs in that little back bedroom
Is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar
I bet you didn’t know under that live oak
My favorite dog is buried in the yard

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it’s like I’m someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself

If I could just come in I swear I’ll leave
Won’t take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me

Mama cut out pictures of houses for years
From Better Homes and Gardens magazine
Plans were drawn and concrete poured
Nail by nail and board by board
Daddy gave life to mama’s dream

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it’s like I’m someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself

If I could just come in I swear I’ll leave
Won’t take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me

You leave home and you move on and you do the best you can
I got lost in this old world and forgot who I am

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it’s like I’m someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself

If I could walk around I swear I’ll leave
Won’t take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me

Survivor

Most everyone who I am close to knows my story.  They know how I was burned. They know where my scars are.  And they know that it doesn't bug me when people ask, "What happened to your arm?".  This month, August 2011, marks the 20th anniversary of when I was burned as a 19 month old.

It hadn't crossed my mind that this month was so significant until I ran into a little toddler at work a few weeks ago.  She was a teeny-tiny little black girl, with ponytails and the sweetest smile across her face.  Her mom stopped a friend and I in the hall as we were leaving work for the day.  She was looking for the Pediatric Unit so they could visit the Child Life Specialist that had worked with them when her daughter was a patient at UMC.  After she mentioned her daughter had been a patient, I took another quick glance at her, wondering what she had been sick with, and realized she had burns on her hands and legs.  Her legs were in pressure garments, so I knew that her burn accident must have been somewhat recent.  I quickly asked her mom if she was a burn survivor, and she replied that yes, she was in a kind of solemn way.  I told her that I was also a burn survivor, and told her how it had happened.  There was an instant connection to this mom and her daughter.  I knelt down to the little girl and gently touched the burns on her hands, asking "are these your burns?"  If I had to guess, she was barely two years old, so she didn't really "get it" at first.  I pointed to my burns, then back to hers, trying to get her to understand.  After doing this back and forth a few times, she reached out her hand to touch my arm, where my scars are most often noticed.  She stroked my burns, then looked up at me and smiled and I knew she understood the connection we had.  My heart was bursting at the seams as I was trying to hold in tears of hope, joy, and peace.  Peace that in my heart, I knew I was once that little girl with new scars - and now I am a grown woman, married, almost done with my nursing degree.  I looked at this little girl and saw potential, a courageous journey ahead, and it was like the Lord was telling me "I work ALL THINGS together for your good."  There is a very small number of especially great moments in my life.  Being proposed to and marrying my best friend are on the list at this point in my life.  But this moment I had with this little girl, who's name I don't even know, will never ever leave my heart.  I truly believe that the Lord used that angel to show me something that I needed to be reminded of.

The Lord really does work things out for our good.  I know it is hard when bad things happen and there is literally NOTHING you can come up with to try to convince yourself that it's going to be okay.  I know personally that my mom and dad both dealt with my accident very emotionally for a long time.  It was not easy- not easy financially, spiritually, or physically on any of us.  But now, 20 years down the road, we can see more of the story.  I can see the good that has come out of this "accident".  There has been glory brought to God through hurt, and I am so thankful to be a part of glorifying the Lord.  It is my purpose in life to bring Him glory!  Thank you, Lord, for a precious and simple reminder of your goodness in my life!

-Anna