Spare Bedrooms and Memories

Although I had plenty of work to do, I spent the morning looking at blogs and pictures and getting ideas on what to do with my spare bedroom. Now that "most" of Kayleigh's things are gone, I can begin the process of redoing the room and the major task of getting rid of that pink and black paint!

I never cared for Kayleigh's color scheme. In fact, while I was at work several years ago, I came home to find my mom and Kayleigh painting the room pink and black. They had spent the day laughing and painting and buying bookshelves. My comment was that it looked like a sleazy nightclub in there. But, my mom had a blast helping her and I just let it be.

I stood in that almost empty room this morning, removing stickers from the doors and posters from the walls, while memories of that day and many others filled my mind. Days that I woke Kayleigh up for school, talks that I had with her in that room, and yes, even some heated arguments. I can still hear the sounds of young girls giggling as they hung out together watching movies and talking about boys. The stink of that awful turtle she loved and though I can see the ugly gold carpet now, normally the room was so messy you couldn't see the floor.

I starting looking around and thinking of what changes to make and then the thought came to me that this was the room that my daughter had grown up in. This is where she lay at night telling God the desires of her heart. This was the place she studied His word and this was the place that she probably cried many tears, as most teenage girls do. In this room she said her prayers with her dad, repeating the "now I lay me down to sleep" prayer that was their nightly routine for so many years. And in this room she grew from a little girl in to a lovely young woman. This was the window she gazed out as she dreamed of where her life would someday take her. Yes, it brought a tear to my eye as I thought of all the memories that were made in this room.

I started taking things off of the wall and reading some of the notes she had stuck to black poster paper she used as decoration. Her notes reminded me that though she was grown and now leaving this room behind, the things she dreamed of, the prayers she prayed and the lessons learned here would be with her forever. The memories are part of who she is and they will never leave her....or me.