A home?

I've spent a lot of time since I had Gavin thinking about what makes a house a home. I mean I've never lived in a "house" but it's not like my siblings and I ever went around referring to our place of residence as a hotel/motel/campground/apartment. Yes we were like gypsy in that our "home" moved locations a lot. We traveled where my dads work was so sometimes our "home" was a motel and we lived there for about a week or two weeks and sometimes it was an apartment and we were there for months at a time. We switched school so much that I was always the "new kid in school". Don't feel sorry for me or though because I liked it. I viewed it as getting to 'reinvent myself' every time I moved. I would daydream and imagine what kind of person I wanted to be percieved as and then I would go for the gusto..of course none of us can truly ever leave our true nature behind us but it was fun to get to play someone else for a while.
The constant moving meant that many times my siblings and I had only each other to play with and only each other to confide in and it made us very close growing up. My point is that we didn't grow up in one single place or have friends that we met and made in kindergarten and moved through the grades with. This whole concept of a "lifelong" friend someone you meet as a child and stay friends with your WHOLE life is completly alien to me. It's a lot like trying to explain heaven to bears..while I might get the concept the true meaning escapes me. The closest thing I have to a lifelong friend is my friend Laurie. We met in the 7th grade and she clung to me like toxic mold until we best friends. I believe her exact words were "you will be my friend whether you like it or not" and like it or not she followed me everywhere until in truth we were best friends. Proving once again that persistance pays off..LOL. She is still my best friend and the closest thing I have to a "lifer" friend. We've been through just about everything together and most of it long distance and still we are best friends..so I guess the whole concept of being in one place your whole life is really scary to me. Yet.....it's an idea i've been kicking around.
I have kids and they have friends and I remember how in the beginning it was really hard for me to leave my friends behind everytime we moved until i learned to just not let people get that close because you would be leaving them. this is not a good trait to have. So I want a HOME and yet I'm at a loss as to how to describe exactly what that is. I realized that all this time i've been praying for a house and what I really wanted was a home. I was reading a fellow bloggers blog today and it just struck me that what I had been longing for what not made of brick and morter but of something much more substantial. I want a home..a home which I realized today means stability, safety, strength, laughter, love, CONTENTMENT..that last is in full caps because it escapes me the most and it's to me more essential than happiness. Happiness is fleeting but contentment is a more steady long lasting emotion. It's interesting how God brings about these epiphanies huh..lol. I have to say though that that epiphany did shake loose some other negative emotions I've been having lately and I realize that no matter where we physically reside whether it be an apartment, townhouse, condo, or a traditional family house brick and morter do not a home make.