Home is Where the Heart is...

"Where are you from?"  "What's your hometown?"  Two of the toughest questions I've ever had continuously in my life.  What's the litany?

I was born in Charleston, SC.
I lived in New York for a while, Schenectady, I think? Oh boy, I think I spelled that wrong.
Then we moved to Welch, MN.
Then it was on to the place I grew up, which in itself is confusing. It used to be one of my great pleasures to recite the following list quickly and without taking a breath:

Our address was Goodhue, our phone number was White Rock, I went to school in Cannon Falls, we actually lived near Vasa, and I went to a Red Wing church which was actually in Wisconsin. Got all that? Uh-huh. And all that, I was never really fond of calling Minnesota home. Sorry, Minnesotan friends. It's just not for everyone.

Then I went to college, in Rexburg, Idaho.

Then just before I got married the next year, my parents sold our house and moved to Arizona. Can't really claim that as home either, though I love my parents, and visiting them, and living with them has been great.  It still didn't feel like home (I'd never actually lived there until several years later!)

We bounced around Rexburg for several years.  We tried a University Ward. Nope. Then it was Rigby. Nope. Then it was Rexburg 4th ward. Then it was Rexburg 9th ward. Nope.

Then we moved down here to Vail, AZ for a couple years.  I love the people in my ward, but it wasn't home.

Then we moved back to Rexburg, and into the Rexburg 15th ward.  I got along with people, they seemed to like me, and appreciate me. I wasn't lost in a sea of other young married families.  People knew who I was, I had a calling I loved (choir accompanist) under the best director (Steve Dresen, he's awesome) I'd ever had, outside my own family. We had friends. Then we were moving again so Matt could do an internship in Disneyland, and for the first time, I was sad to leave.  We even arranged for us to be able to move back into the ward again when we came back.

And now, through an unforeseen set of circumstances, that dream may not come true.  And it made me realize today, that for the first time in my life, I'd found someplace I could call home.  Only, I may not get to go back. Oh sure, I'll be in Rexburg.  But for those of you who don't know, in Rexburg, it's really hard sometimes to keep social ties outside your ward boundaries.  You just get too busy, and if you aren't forced to see people every week, you tend to forget them, or set them aside.  We've all done it, LDS or not.

And that makes me really sad.

But I'll never forget that I found home. Thank you.