Transplanted

We seven Ankenys have been living in our house for a whole year!   I am so thankful for what we have been able to accomplish in twelve months.  In fact, while I was perusing through my poetry journal, I found a poem that I wrote while we were in the process of getting ready to sell our house back in March 2017.  This poem helped me to reconcile all the emotions that I was feeling while we prepared to make a new start.  We did not now if or when our house would sell and where we would eventually end up.

Uprooting
by Racheal Ankeny 

Fifteen years and more,
Here we live,
Roots plunging deeper, children sprouting taller
Blossoms abound. 

Planted, watered, fertilized
Are we.
Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, Sisters, Cousins
Surround us like a forest with outstretched branches. 

Here we have grown.
Celebrations and happiness we have known,
Also suffering, sadness, and grief. 

To this house our wee ones we brought,
All healthy and vibrant with life.
Five seedlings carefully sheltered
Beneath 523 S. Elder Street's eaves. 

Can roots grown too deep?
Ours feel dry.
They're likely to shrivel,
Only different soil will satisfy. 

We seven have waited,
Praying for Yahweh's direction,
Hoping to find a way. 

It's time to uproot!
Carefully we dig and pull.
Painfully, excitedly separating,
Choosing what to leave.

To our Lord we look,
And set our gaze North.
Full of hope, anticipating adventure,
Anxious to venture from the encircling leaves. 

By Him the future is held,
The soil he has predestined for us,
To be planted, watered, and fed
All over again.