Where Is Home?

          We've gone through negotiations for a house many times now, and just when it seems like it's only a matter of days, something else gets thrown into the mix. Most recently we waited for a redo of a home disclosure only to have the seller add several items they were unwilling to leave instead of changing an answer to more correctly reflect the house's condition (a condition that my hubby caught while walking through the house showing). Nothing has felt like it has gone smoothly other than the initial sale contract on our house that fell through a month and a half later.
            Along with all the challenges of relocation, our animals have presented fun challenges this week too. Our female mallard duck had a growth on her third membrane in her eye. It basically looked like a small pencil eraser was coming out of the corner of her eye. One avian vet visit later (and eyedrops administered twice daily), and it is starting to look better. When they started saying that we only had a 50/50 chance of it going away, our family started praying really hard. We love Splashes, but she is not having a $400 surgery to remove the growth. Yesterday,  we also had the fun of waiting for Charlotte to stop laying on her egg and one of the other hen's eggs before we left to go to the library. Heaven help the person who tries to move a hen who is sitting on her eggs. You might just lose an eye. She snuck out of her pen in the yard to get back in our hen house that was supposed to be vacated for cleaning...apparently she missed our out of order sign. We couldn't just leave the house or the pen open while we were gone without leaving all the hens defenseless against the neighbor dog. I can't really complain though. The pancakes we had this morning thanks to her work were quite tasty.
          Every year my kids get excited when Cheerios puts out their boxes with books in them. We each pick out a book. This year one of them is entitled,  "Where Is Home, Little Pip?" The penguin gets lost and asks every animal for help, but they only describe their own home. Each animal includes their family as part of the description in their home. At the end of the story Pip's parents find her; but when they go to settle down for the night,  Pip questions why they aren't going to their original home. The parents then reveal that home is where they all are, no matter the location. We opened the box of Cheerios that held this book on the day we signed our contract for selling our home back at the end of May. It seemed fitting to be reminded what really constitutes a home. I had all kinds of emotions that day and in the days that have followed; but today as we look to where we will all be together again, it's a good reminder too of what we look forward to. There is a restlessness growing within all of us to have a reuniting of our family. None of us like being apart. This house doesn't feel like a home without my hubby here. I know he feels more at peace when he is here with us too.
          Last week our baby turned six months old, and I decided to walk around the house with our camcorder to document all the rooms and their importance especially for the baby,  who'll be too young to remember it. I showed him where he was born, and where he took his first bath (actually since it was a water birth maybe it's technically the same) along with where he swang while I'd run my thirty minutes.  Someday, I think he'll appreciate it. Every morning he looks over his crib railing, gibbering and waiting for me to arrive. I am greeted with the biggest grin ever because all he really wants is me. Home is where we are together.  He knows it now. Hopefully,  he'll never forget it.