Home is where the heart is????????

As of my last post we were just sitting and waiting and hoping that the right person would come along and fall in love with our house and make us a phenomenal offer. Well, unfortunately we are still sitting and waiting and hoping that the right person will come along and fall in love with our house and at least make us a fair offer. The only thing that has changed is geography. You see, last month Kaylea and Angel and I packed our clothes and headed south to be with Barry.

As of right now, we (Barry, Kaylea, Angel and I) are living with Auntie M and Mr. Bob in Lakeland, FL. And for those of you that are scratching your heads, yes, Auntie M and Mr. Bob were living in Knoxville and they moved to Florida, also. It was quite coincidental, but Mr. Bob was laid-off in February and he was hired in March by a company in Lakeland (which is also our - Missy and my - hometown). So, Auntie M and Mr. Bob offered us their upstairs which was sitting empty. As you can imagine, things are pretty crazy around here at times. But we all are trying to make the best out of a not-so-ideal situation.

There have been several times that I have looked around and asked myself "what are you doing?" It feels like I am on a very long extended vacation. I am living in my sister's house, sleeping in my sister's guest room, eating off of my sister's dishes in her kitchen, washing my clothes in my sister's washer, etc.... you get the picture. All the while I am trying to keep things as normal as possible for Kaylea. The only problem is that this task is next to impossible because things aren't normal.

Kaylea has said that she feels like she is on vacation, also. I guess the finality of the move won't hit her until she starts school. For now all she knows is that she misses her BFF terribly bad and phone calls and emails just aren't the same as sleep overs and play dates. Every chance I get I try to distract her. So far this summer we have worked on Summer Bridge Activities; bought her some books to read; visited with my friend Mary and her children; taken a trip to Daytona to visit our friends from Seymour - Ms. Pam, Gram and Billy; and spent some time at Anna Maria Island at our cousin Debi's beach condo. Currently, she is attending VBS and we are planning on sending her to a summer camp for a couple of weeks.

I almost had myself fooled into thinking that Kaylea was really doing o.k. and this move was going to be a piece of cake. That was until a couple of weeks ago. Kaylea was upset because she didn't want to do a writing assignment for her tutor (that is a whole other post). I wasn't really giving her much sympathy and kept telling her she needed to just do it! Then out of nowhere she broke down into tears and told me, "I want to go home. Please mommy, just let me go home. Call Grammy and she can come and get me and take me home." Well, I tried to be strong and not let her see me crying inside. I explained to her, "This is our home now. Our family is together and your home is where your family is."

I don't think I convinced her; heck, I don't think I convinced myself either. So my question to all of you out there is this, "What makes your house a home? Is it your family being there? Is it ownership? Is it your beloved belongings?"

Any advise and/or words of wisdom are appreciated.