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* A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2017*

Matteo and Lilah: We officially sold our home today.  These photos were from our last few hours in the house.  They were difficult hours for all of us.  Daddy had to leave for work and Mama was still trying to get everything in the car or unscrewed from the wall.  There was nothing to play with except a box of tools, a pumpkin bucket and Matteo's Halloween costume, which I'd left out for an event that night.  There was boredom.  There were tears.  I think there was excitement, too.  Running around an empty house isn't something you get to do everyday.  I hadn't seen it empty like this since our first few hours there, when Daddy carried me through the door almost ten years ago.  I remember the excitement of the promises that those walls held for us.  The two of you were just dreams then, of course, the hope to fill our new home with a family in the future.  Seeing the house empty was much different than that first time.  The walls and floors were empty of our things now, but still full of the memories we made there.  Little feet learning to walk, voices learning to talk, hugs and kisses, goodnight stories, bubble baths, messes (oh so many messes!), clothes outgrown, ideas learned and shared, plenty of tears shed, both happy and sad.  This is the place where we first learned to be a family.  Luckily, like all the things that you both helped pack away in so many boxes, we can take these memories with us, even if we have to leave the walls and floors that supported them behind.  We can unpack those memories from our hearts anytime we like.