3 Homes

There is a popular saying that goes like this, "Home is where the heart is." The problem is, I really feel like I have three homes, and that makes my heart either extremely large or a little torn sometimes.
Let me tell you about each of them....

1. NC - it's where we live. It's where my children have grown up, and where one child was born. It's where we have been for the "majority" of our married life. It's where we have a church family, friends, a steady job, a house that we own....lots of warm weather and tons of cool things to do in parks, churches, communities, etc. It's where we plan to be for sometime.

2. PA, Ktown - it's where I was born and grew-up. It's where my family, and part of Nathan's family, still live. It's where many of my childhood, and very close friends live. It is full of history, farms, the slow ways of the Amish, farmer's markets, and many other childhood memories. It's a good place to raise a family - a nice, small town.

3. PA, Etown - it's where we lived when we first got married. It's where we had lots of firsts - our first church family, found our first married couple friends (who we still love and miss), had our first child, and many other firsts. It's another PA town full of farms and country living, and we lived in a farmhouse on a sheep farm. Could it get any cooler??  If I had an immediate choice (and a job and home, etc), I would probably choose to live here at this current moment in my life.

Now some of you can't understand what I'm saying because you have always lived in the same town, or even house, for your entire life. That does seem to be less and less of the "average experience" in America, but some people are still lucky enough to claim it. I think, in most aspects, those people are very fortunate.

Some of you can relate to my problem. If you have moved a few times in your life, especially a good distance away from any family, you understand. It's hard to go back to "home", because you really don't know where it is. Or, in my case many times, you feel so at home and loved by so many people, that it's overwhelming to go visit any old "home". But, then again - I guess I should be thankful that I have so many places where I have family or close friends who love us. And that so many people want us to be close to them.

There's another saying that goes something like Home = Family; and if that is true, I suppose I really don't have anything to worry about. My closest family is my husband and 2.5 kids, and they are right here with me. I feel quite at home with them.