Sitting in this house with just a few hours to go before we move out of it, I’m getting understandably sentimental. So much has happened here. So much began in this house. Our lives as newlyweds started here. It’s where 2 became 4. And where Kelly Hennigan Photography was born. I was sitting in front of this very computer almost 5 years ago, near tears with anxiety about the fact that there couldn’t be a worse time for me to quit my job and start a business. We couldn’t afford it. Not even a little bit. But my goodness. Thank God I was too stubborn to listen to reason. My memories are long and they will be vivid. But those of my children will fade. Ryan, all of 4 years old, probably won’t remember it at all. Save for the photos that will make him think he does.
And I want them to know so much...
I want you to know that this is the house where I first rocked you to sleep. Where you first fell down and got up. It’s where I locked myself in my car to escape while he screamed himself to sleep. It’s where I crawled on my hands and knees out of her room, scared to death I would wake her. It’s where Daddy stayed up late to help put you to bed and then studied into the wee hours so he could make a better life for us.
It’s also where he and I played countless games of gin rummy, drank too much beer and solved the problems of the world. It’s where we fought, made up and fell more in love. It’s filled with memories of dance parties, games of Candyland and Uno and countless volumes of Fancy Nancy. We nurtured lifelong friendships in this house and we taught you to respect yourself and others in this house. I punished you, lots, in this house but I also hugged you into ease when you were scared. I rubbed your backs to wake you for school and I yelled when you did things that scared me.
There are so many things I wish I could imprint on you about this house. But I cannot. So I’ll show you pictures and we’ll tell old stories. But we won’t live in the past. We’ll settle into what we hope is, if not our forever home, our really really long time home. We’re excited and hopeful about this next chapter. He and I will never forget that we walked into this house with a bed, a couch and a case of Miller Lite. But we are walking out with so much more.
