This is Home & A Giveaway!

Erin Stache, a long time friend and the author behind "This is My Life" blog recently reached out to us to see if we would be interested in a little giveaway celebrating the idea of "home".  There are few things we appreciate more than community so we were glad for the opportunity to support Erin and her blog. With our "City Print" lineup, we loved the idea of celebrating "home"! So read a little more about why we call Raleigh home and learn how to enter the giveaway below!

For over the past 10 years, Raleigh has been home for Teran and I. We would have been hard-pressed to imagine our present situation years ago. As each of us graduated high-school, I'm sure we had our own ideas and dreams of where we would end up and there was little part of either of us that could have guessed that it would be in the same city. Born and raised in Orlando, FL the idyllic childhood we spent there still makes it feel like home at times. From there we moved to what seemed like Orlando's opposite in every way, Franklin, NC. A small-town deep in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. It was there that we learned the blessings of small-town hospitality and community, while growing up in one of the most beautiful areas the east coast has to offer. The next stop for both of us would be Raleigh, NC. A city we were unfamiliar with but one of the largest we could find in this great state of ours.

It's amazing how life and perspectives change as you grow older. Beginning with our time at NC State, a new school year brought along an opportunity for us to live together in this city of ours. Soon I would be dragging Teran up to North Raleigh to join me at the church I was attending, soon to be followed by her yet-to-be fiancee and future husband, JJ. At the time, we were college students driving across town for church with few plans of what was ahead. But that's the cool thing about the future - it's unpredictable. None of us would have imagined that 10 years later we would still be attending that church, living just a few miles from it in adjoining neighborhoods, our houses just a short bike ride away from each other. Teran and JJ would be married in that church and JJ would become a Raleigh Police Officer and Teran & I would be running our own small-business. There would be two precious little boys who would join us along the way to introduce Teran and JJ to the world of parenthood and myself to the blessing of being an Aunt. We would work in jobs right next to each other and eventually we would alternate days doing one job in the same office.

Raleigh has been the place where we have grown as individuals, as a family, and as business owners. Our faith has grown, our community has grown and our hearts have grown attached to this city of ours. We have learned the back roads around this cozy city and have appreciated it for the small-town feel it still offers amid the city's amenities. Here we have found a way to plant our own roots - roots that have been nurtured and strengthened by the people and things that now make this place feel like Home.

So help us celebrate "Home"! If you would like to be entered to win a 12x18 City Print of your choice, be sure to visit our friend Erin over at "This is My Life" and see how you can enter to win!