My Special Home is Where Family Memories are Made
Home is where the heart lies. For AR March blogging contest, we are asked to write a blog about our favorite place that meant the most to us either because of its location or memories that were built in it.
How do I decide which place meant the most to me? Which location meant the most? Which house was the most memorable? This was difficult for me to pick just one location, for I have moved so often since birth. There were years that I have moved even twice a year. Nope, I am not a military brat, however, due to circumstances, long term residence was never in the books for me.
Born in Taiwan, my parents decided to move to Brasil when I was only 5 years old. I guess I would have to say the cruise ship across the ocean was my home for several months. Upon arrival, our first home was a small apartment where a family of four made memories with books, bicycle, and paper toys. My favorite was designing house floor models made of paper. (I guess I had an interest in real estate from a very early age.) As my dad learned the language and we all adjusted to the local culture, our income status improved from year to year. Dad got promoted very quickly, and soon we were moving every two years into a different house. Mom and dad knew from the start that one way to build wealth was through real estate. Of all the houses we moved into, the last one was the most memorable. There was this master bathroom door entrance that blended in as a regular wall to wall shelf cabinet. I use to love to show my friends that I lived in a house that had a secret room.
In my teens, we moved to the good old USA. Our first residence was in downtown Los Angeles. We moved in close to my grandmother who was battling cancer. Then a year later, we moved to Anaheim, CA to help with the construction building of the first church meeting hall in America. At this location is where most of my happy childhood memories were made. Walking distance to our local high school and church, pool in the backyard, Summer and Winter training where my parents hosted many foreign brothers and sisters of our church to reside in our home. Shortly after, we moved to Houston TX, then to Boston Ma, then back to Fountain Valley, CA, then Cypress CA. At this point, I have gotten married, and we move to Spokane WA due to job relocation.
I googled the image of our old Spokane house. We installed the basketball hoop on the left.
Spokane WA was a sweet spot in all my moves. It is the first house that Les and I bought together. We wanted to raise our family in this community. We bought a house where we did a lot of DIY projects. We even brought in a gas line for the fireplace into the house on our own...yes, we are both very handy. But this move was also short lived. Due to job relocations, we ended up in Mission Viejo CA for a few years, then finally to the Inland Empire. At this time, we started investing ourselves and moved pretty much every other year. Our investments took us to the high desert, then to the Bay area and finally, it brought us back full circle to the Inland Empire.
I have to say that I never experienced what it feels like to belong to a community, or to make long lasting friends, or to build lasting relationships. However, the trade off is that I learned that a home is where the heart returns to every night. I learned to be more diverse and accepting of different cultures, heritages, and beliefs. I learned to be very dependent on family, the quality of friendship and not on the quantity. I learned to read people, to be more aware of my surroundings and to be more self-sufficient.
I have to say that my favorite home is each and every location that my Lord placed me throughout this thing I call the journey of life.
My Special Home is Where Family Memories are Made
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