A Place to Call Ours: Why I’m So Grateful for Our Home.

Three months ago, my son and I were living in two rooms. They were enough, enough to sleep, eat, play, but it was tight, temporary, and never truly ours. 

Before that, I’d spent years sharing spaces with others or living with my mum, which brought its own set of emotional challenges. Privacy was a luxury. Stillness was rare. And the idea of “home” always felt like something just out of reach.

Then, through family of extended family, we were offered a flat to rent, with a huge garden, no less. It was beautiful. And more than that, it was our very own space.

I don’t think I realised straight away how much that shift meant. At first, I was just trying to get settled. Sorting furniture. Making it liveable. Keeping my toddler safe and entertained while still adjusting to this unfamiliar sense of space. But as the weeks passed, and as I kept working through my own healing, through therapy, meditation, writing, and self-reflection, I started to feel something deeper.

Gratitude.

Not just the everyday kind, but the kind that sits in your chest and makes your breath catch. The kind that reminds you of all the versions of yourself that didn’t have this. All the moments where you made do, held it together, got through, without a place to fully exhale.

Now, I do.

We do.

This flat isn’t just four walls and a garden. It’s our safe space. It’s where I get to be the mum I want to be, without eyes watching or tension simmering in the background. It’s where my son runs wild and free, and where I can sit quietly with my tea and just be. And when he’s at his dad’s, it becomes my own space again, a place where I can rest, feel, write, breathe.

I never had my own space growing up, or in early adulthood. But I have it now. And every time I catch myself tidying up his toys, sipping herbal teas on the sofa, or chasing him around the garden, there’s a part of me that sometimes stops to remember, your resilience made this happen.

And it did.

So today, I’m giving thanks for our home.

For every inch of safety it offers.

For every quiet moment it allows.

For every moment it holds, of healing, growth, and love.

“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”

 -Maya Angelou.

Part of my blog series “Redefining Family, My Way”-exploring love, boundaries, and belonging in non-traditional family life.