The 2008-2009 recession was pretty rough on me. I found a job working in a furniture warehouse, and I was very thankful for it. I was the only one there who had never been to jail. But the people I worked with were great people.

I worked there for a few months before finding a job at a jewelry shop. I worked in the back, sizing rings and doing other types of repairs. That was a very fun time in my life and there were a lot of young people I was friends with, and we had a lot of fun together.

But I wanted a better job, one using my degree, and one that I could support a family with. And I wanted to live somewhere I could spend the rest of my life. So I found a new job in a different town, and it felt amazing. I had a one bedroom apartment that was extremely cozy, and I loved being there.

And I loved the new town I was living in. It was quiet and very homey, and there were a few nice things to do and great places to go hiking and exploring in the mountains around town. Mostly it just felt good to have a home and a place I could probably spend the rest of my life.

And then I fell in love and got married. We had been friends for a couple years before I told her that I was in love with her. We lived in our little apartment for about nine months.

Then we found an old two bedroom house, just outside of town in the mountains. It was surrounded by forest, but their were trails through the woods to the neighbor's homes. Bears walked through our front yard, and also raccoons and white squirrels.

It was a beautiful life and I felt very lucky to have a wife and a home. I felt lucky to live in a nice small town and to have a few friends and a job that I could support a family with.

So we fixed up our little home slowly. During the snowstorms, we would play Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby Christmas records and just sit and drink coffee and hot chocolate and look out the window at our beautiful, small lawn and forest totally covered in deep snow.

We found a cat who made the home even more cozy, and she solved our mouse problem. It was great fun learning how to fix up a home, and it felt wonderful to do that with my wife.

Then we decided to put an addition on, it added one bedroom and one bathroom. We paid someone to excavate and build the foundation, but other than that we did all the work ourselves including framing, electrical, plumbing, insulation, roofing, absolutely everything. I think my dad was very excited that he could teach me all the things that older people taught him when he was younger. He taught me how to build rafters and to frame up windows. I know it meant a lot to him. So our beautiful life had another beautiful chapter.

Then we found out that there would be someone new living with us. And we were thankful that we had put a third bedroom on our home since we knew we would now be expecting more company to come visit and be with our family. My wife stopped working and stayed at home in our beautiful little spot with our son.

I can’t stress enough how beautiful the location was and how beautiful are a little town was. We watched the seasons come and go. We would have snows over a foot deep. Across the street was a steep valley with 300 acres of nature preserve, so out all our windows we were looking into the treetops. We would watch the bare trees grow new leaves and turn green, and then watch them turn beautiful orange and red, and fall off again, and have their branches covered in snow.

We had a wonderful little church, where everyone was very kind to us. Our home felt like a religious place for some reason, maybe just because of the natural beauty or maybe because of who we were. Or maybe something else was very happy to see a family in this old home, a home that was almost 100 years old.

Everything was been broken when we moved in. We had to fix absolutely everything. We reframed the floors, rewired electrical, cut out cast iron plumbing. I learned a lot doing the renovating myself.

The home was not just physically beautiful, but it was also beautiful in that it held a family with children who are happy every day. I had times in my life when I was alone when I couldn’t find a good job, and I couldn’t relax. But in this home I felt comfortable and extremely happy. I became more religious without even realizing it.

But we lived about four hours from our parents. This was very nice at first because we had our own life, but we could also easily go back for a weekend or for any reason.

The whole time I felt like there was a chance we could live in this home for the rest of our lives. It was a humble home, kind of small, but also in a beautiful spot in a beautiful town. It was the cheapest home in the neighborhood, but we loved it.

It had a double fireplace so you could sit by the fire while you ate dinner, and then you could go into the living room and also sit by the same fire. I thanked God every day for our home and for my wife and our family.

As our kids got older, we realized it’s not too easy to drive three kids 4 1/2 hours to go see their grandparents. And our oldest was going to be starting kindergarten. After that we were going to be in this town for at least the next 20 years. I thought about how I grew up with my grandparents 1000 miles away, and we only got to see them a couple times per year. I wanted our children to grow up near their grandparents.

On our sons fifth birthday, I made him breakfast, and then put on his birthday hat and took a picture of him and sent it to everybody. My mom immediately called us to tell him happy birthday. Our son was very excited to talk to her. His birthday was on a Sunday so he told my mom that we were going to church. He asked her if she would be there, and of course she said no, she was not going to be there because they lived 4 1/2 hours away. That was quite sad, but luckily I had already accepted a job in the same county as our parents. So we knew we were moving closer to them. In fact, we would live 15 or 20 minutes from each of our parents.

Our kids were excited to live closer to the grandparents, but they were also a little sad to be leaving our home because they absolutely loved it and our town.

We had taken the handles off of the fireplace glass door because our son, when he was very young, was standing up and holding on them and shaking them, and we were worried the doors would pop open a he would fall. Just last week, he asked us why the handles were gone and we told him because you used to hang on them. But now that we’re moving, we can put them back on.

I know it will be very happy, watching our children grow up near their extended family. This is something that a lot of people do not have at this time in history. I also think of what will happen to our parents when they get older, and they will need someone to take care of them. All of my siblings have moved away, so who is going to take care of them?

We have been incredibly sad over the past few weeks knowing we’re going to leave our home and our town. But I imagine we would be more sad 20 years from now if we did stay here.

So a new part of our life begins, and God has taken us in a new direction. Today I took one last picture of our cat in our home, because this is the last time she will ever be here.

I had a couple weeks between jobs. We have spent them in our home as a family, and we’ve done all kinds of fun things in our town. Even though this time in our life is ending, I’m very thankful for it because there were times in my life when I didn’t have any of this at all.