Are we moving? 

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When Bruce and I got married almost 10 years ago, we couldn’t find a house with enough comfortable spaces for our six children and extended family.  We looked and looked.  After realizing that there wasn’t a seven bedroom home available in Delaware County, we bought an empty lot to build on.  But every appraisal came in too high, builders cost too much, and banks wouldn’t finance our new construction.  We were weeks away from getting married with no place to house our blended family.

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At the eleventh hour, God blessed us with a beautiful four bedroom house that we turned into a seven bedroom home.  It’s a whole miracle story in and of itself.  We have had plenty of space for everyone and have hosted birthdays, holidays, game nights, and have had lots of family fun.  We love our house, but about three years ago, I started feeling really antsy. I felt like it was time to make a move.  I started looking.  And, even though Bruce wasn’t exactly thrilled, we put our house on the market.

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When we blended our families, we initially had eight living under our roof.  Then my brother came to stay with us and we had nine. My parents would come for extended visits bringing the number of place settings at dinner to eleven.  It wasn’t unusual for us to have 14 around the table on any given night. As the kids were growing older, there were less at home. Bedrooms were sitting empty.  The house grew quieter.  It seemed like the perfect time to move.  

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We found a smaller house. Downsizing is good, right?  It had a beautiful backyard on the river.  We wanted it.  A large family made an offer on our house. It seemed like a good thing.  But then the deal fell through.  Our buyer walked away.  I showed the house again.  This couple was interested and went off to see if they could get financing.  But then they found that they couldn’t. Another deal that fell apart.  Our house on the river was still waiting for us.  A realtor showed a nice older couple.  They liked it. They made an offer.  The third one in a matter of weeks.  They seem to have the money so no worries there.  But then they found something else so they walked away.  Another buyer stepped forward to buy our little house on the river. We were so disappointed.  

Just before Thanksgiving 2016, I decided to take our house off the market.  We didn’t know where we would move to since our river front house was gone. I couldn’t imagine having everyone home and trying to make the house presentable to walk strangers through over the holidays.  It was just too much. 

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Just a few short days later, my mom had a massive stroke.  Mom had been my confidant, my partner in crime, my best friend.  They didn’t think that she would make it through the first night but she was still here.  I slept in the chair next to her bed coming home only to shower and go right back.  I barely left the hospital for 10 days straight.  We had her transferred to Morrison Woods Nursing Facility for therapy.  She did pretty well.  She ate.  She tried hard to do her therapy.  But she wasn’t going to get any better and we knew it.  I had promised my mom years ago that I would never let her stay in a nursing home.  I was going to take care of her.  A promise is a promise.  We have this big house.  There’s plenty of space.  We’ll make it work.  
                        
We put Mom in a room right next to ours.  It was hard at first.  Mom didn’t know where she was.  She didn’t know who I was.  And she was scared.  She would cry out all night long but I was right there to take care of her.  And then it dawned on us.  God closed all those doors for a reason. Our house was just the place where I could comfortably take care of my mom.  I spent the next 12 months caring for Mom around the clock.  And Dad moved in with us, too, to help with Mom. I’m so thankful that God allowed me that precious time to be with my mom. Our house had plenty of room for all of us. 

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About a year after my mom passed away, I started looking at real estate again.  Dad has his ‘suite’ downstairs complete with TV and pool table.  But at 89 years old, the stairs are getting a little bit harder.  So, we looked at everything on the market that might have two master suites or that we could make work somehow. 

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After about a year of looking and coming up empty, I remembered Habbukuk 2:3: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”  

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Years ago when I was a newly single mom, my friend Laura shared with me about her ‘Habbukuk 2 list’.  So later that week after much contemplation, I made my own list - my list of what I was looking for in a husband.  I used it as my measuring stick. Whenever I would meet someone, I would go to my bible and pull out my list.  Nope, he’s not #4.  Well, he does fit #9 but not #7. Hmm... am I being unreasonable?  Am I too picky?  

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When I met Bruce, I pulled out that folded up piece of yellow lined paper again. I read my handwritten list again.  Over and over.  And do you know what?  He fit every one of the 35 things that I had written down.  That’s when I knew that I could marry him! :) Yep.  I guess that vision was for the appointed time.  I was so glad that I had that list.  It was confirmation.  And 10 years later it still is. 

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So, after some prayer, I wrote my Habbukuk 2 list for our next house.  It was long and specific.  It would help me to narrow my search some.  I shared my list with Bruce and asked him what he wanted to add to the list.  He agreed with everything I had written and only had one additional request, “It has to be interesting.”  Um... okay?  

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So, here I am pouring over Zillow listings and stopping at every For Sale By Owner sign that I see.  Every house that I show Bruce, he doesn’t like.  He really doesn’t want to move but I do.  We are at an impasse.  I think that he’s just picking these houses apart. He says that they are  all boring.  

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So, I start looking at school houses and warehouses and anything else I can find that is “interesting”.  Then I remember the little church house I looked at before I met Bruce.  It was small and quaint with stained glass windows and a nice yard.  We talked about it a lot one day while we were dating.  I remember the conversation well.  He said that could be something that he would like to do someday.

 

I vet every place against my list.  I drive by each one that might even be close to fitting the majority of my line items.  Anything that comes close, I set up an appointment to go look.