The day before we left for England, we went back to our house one last time to drop off the remainder of our stuff for storage. On the way, Nolan said, “we’re going to Reid’s house, he’s taking care of it while we’re gone.” (Reid, being the little boy of our renters.) That got me thinking — what is “home.” Kathy and I have worked hard to make our house on Brixton Lane our home for the last nine years and last four and a half with Nolan. But in a few short weeks, that home quickly became just a house.

Is a home where you live? Is it the place you store your stuff? Is it the place you make memories. While the answer to all three of those is yes, what we’ve found is, “home” is nothing more than where we are together. Within a few hours of being in England, we quickly made our house on Jansons Road our new home.

Kathy unpacked our suitcases and hung our clothes in the wardrobe or put them away in drawers. Nolan set up his sound machine and made sure Happy and blanket were on his bed. I set up my desk to make it a comfortable place for work. And together, we went to the grocery to pick up the first round of essentials.

Outside of those physical things, It was sitting together at the table eating bacon and eggs. It was seeing Kathy lying in bed reading a book. It was watching Nolan playing in the bathtub with his monster trucks. Those little glimpses of familiarity let me know I was home.

Now, what made us know this wasn’t our actual home? No flat sheets! In England, most people use just the comforter to cover up. That would be great and all if it wasn’t for the London heatwave! The average high temperature for July is supposed to be 73 degrees. It’s been 83 degrees or warmer the entire time we’ve been here. Couple that with no air conditioning and, well, I guess you could say we’re now prepared for Tanzania and Thailand.