Small Town, America

This is my town.  This is where my husband grew up, where I have lived for the last eleven years, where my children are growing up..
Families walk the path around the park by the river, and children laugh and play.
Dogs are walked. Friends get together.
Kids on bikes are easily found after school and during the summer.
Neighbors help with pets when needed, bring in the mail, watch the house.
We have lunch with friends, go fishing, picnic in the park, catch a movie at the theater, work and shop downtown, send flowers to those we love.
Our children play softball and soccer, football and participate on the swim team, attend school with friends and go to sleepovers.
This is my town. Our town.

This is Home.
My daughter dances at the local dance center.
My oldest son rides his bike across town to the pool with his friends.
My youngest son digs in the dirt and finds bugs in our yard.
My husbands parents live across the street from us.
This. Is. Home.

This is also the place where a murder/arson trial has been in session for the last two weeks.  I'll admit that I've been following the live feed from the courthouse, which is just down the street from my office.  The home where a young mother lost her life is just down the street in another direction.  I did not know the family, but did know of them.  My husband knows her husband.  I know that two little boys are motherless.  I cannot imagine what the family members are going through, what they have been going through for the last two years.  I pray that I never have to know.
I listen to the court proceedings, and I am saddened.  I am heartbroken for the boys and for the young mother's family and friends.  I am in disbelief that this tragedy happened here.. here in my little town.  We've been thrust into the national spotlight.. and this trial is all the reporters show about our town.

And I go home to my husband and to my two boys and to my girl.  I see my friends and neighbors, everything that makes this town my home.  I drive the streets of this town and know that we are so much more than this trial.  We are everything I mentioned above, and we are So much more.