Putting Down Roots

When we bought our house, we knew we wanted to plant trees.  And not just any trees, but fruit bearing trees.  We have a vision of having a mini orchard with apples and cherries.  And because The Man is sentimental, he wanted to plant our first tree at our first house.  When we have our first child, we'd like to take seeds from the apples and grow a tree for the child.  The tree will grow with the child and be their tree.  When they get married, we'd love to be able to give them a sapling from their tree.

Our first apple tree

In talking and dreaming our our house, tree and children (to come), it made me think about putting down roots.   One of the things that can be hard about being a Navy military family is that it can be hard to put down roots.  We're required to move every few years and while that can be fun and exciting it doesn't allow you to really settle in.  Granted, I'm writing this as a navy wife of 1 year at our first duty station so I haven't dealt with moving that much...yet.  I didn't move at all growing up and went to the same school system from kindergarten to high school (Go Hornets!)  I went away to college and then moved to Asia for three years after graduating from college.  Then I moved back to MA and it was so nice to return to the familiar.  To a place where even though things had changed, things had stayed the same.  When you've been away for awhile, knowing that some things are unchanged are comforting. 

This past year  was a little rough for me.  There was a lot of change...I was a new wife, in a new place, trying to make new friends, in a new church, and I was no longer working full time as a teacher but was now a stay at home wife trying to be my business going again.  We also bought our first house and got a dog.  I'm just now starting to feel like me again.  We have a year of marriage down, I've made friends, we love our church, my business is picking up and I've become familiar with the area.  I've put down roots, shallow though they may be, and I'm excited for them to go deeper.