Monday, August 4, 2014

Home Sweet Home


I am still pinching myself as I type these words on this page! Our journey to "home" has taken us here... To this sweet place. When I stop and think about all of the days, all of the tears and all of the prayers that have made their way to this place I almost lose my breath! God has been SO amazingly good to us!

I remember sitting at my computer last summer. I had a cup of coffee in hand, and I had carved out time to catch up some of the other blogs I enjoy reading. One of those blogs is called 'The Nester'. She is a mom on the East Coast who mothers three boys and has a heart for homemaking and decorating. We are like minded in many ways. Anyhow, I went to her page that day and read about her recent move to her new home. Like us, they had been renting for several years, and the time had come for them to buy again. The pictures were incredible! They bought this sweet little white farmhouse on some acreage. It needed lots of work, but nothing that seemed impossible to her! She wrote about how she was SO up and ready for the challenge to make this dream home their personal dreamy home. I sat there with my coffee and admittedly, became FULL of envy. How I adored the pictures of this little home! Sure it had outdated everything, but my eyes see past that, and I immediately saw exactly what I would do with such a place. As I dreamt about it though, I sat there and told myself that when our time came to purchase another home, it most likely would be something a little more "cookie cutter". Not only because things like this around this part of the country are pretty pricey, but also because I never thought I would talk my hubby into such a thing.

As we have rented these past three years, there have been hard things for me to get over. I LOVE color! I have been surrounded by white walls for three years. You would be surprised how that one simple thing can zap the creativity right out of a person! It hasn't been easy for me to make our houses our homes without being able to slap paint up on the walls. Each time I would voice my discontentment about being a renter, I would be reminded, either by someone listening to me or by the Holy Spirit, that the Lord would be surprising me with something extra special at the end of all of this. I have felt His goodness in many ways over the past three years. He has blessed me with new knowledge about myself and about my family that I never would have known if not for this journey. I had come to a realization that THIS was the "something extra special" that I had been hearing about. It wasn't about a house, it was about me and my heart. This was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow... And what a treasure it is! Never did I imagine that there was more....

When we saw this farmhouse/used to be schoolhouse back in April, I immediately fell in love. Much like 'The Nester's' home, it needed my touches, but when I walked in the door, my touches are what I saw. I saw past the ugly blue-green carpet and the salmon orange walls. I saw every sweet thing about it and I immediately began to dream. However, the price tag turned this dream machine off. It wasn't the home after all. Fast forward a month or so and all of that changed. The price had just come down, and there were literally multiple people offering. We became part of a coin toss... And we won! That's right, we literally won a coin toss for this home. For me though, I knew it was much more than that. It was about God gifting us... Pure and simple. Why did I doubt just HOW good God would be to me?

We have been here for three weeks now. It was a long, frustrating, nail biting journey to get here. It was also a sweet, eye opening, learning experience. We are here because God wants us to be here. He wanted to show this family what He is capable of doing yet once again. He NEVER fails! Since the first night we slept here, we have prayed that this house would continue to be a blessing to us, but that it would be a home that would bless others. It is SO important to us that the walls of this home are not just painted pretty with all of our personal flairs. More importantly, these walls should always hold a strong sense of the Holy Spirit within them. This home was a gift to us... We want to gift others with it.

We have already painted every room except for the master suite. We have replaced the flooring with a beautiful hickory floor. There is much to be done still, but we are here. Our journey has brought us all to this place. Our roots as a family started in a home. During the past few years, our roots have expanded more inside of the walls of our hearts. Now, the roots that have become established have been re-planted in this home. We are feeling blessed beyond words... And I still pinch myself every morning when I wake up.