July 28, 2008 10:34 AM
Still moving - happiness bigtime
Still moving. I go to bed each night and wake up each morning aching all over - and can't imagine what Tripp is feeling since he is 53 and doing super-human wonderful lifting and carrying and getting big things through small doors. As I wrote once before in Why I Don't Ask My Husband to Do Housework:
I must say that moments like this have the effect of a defibrillator on my heart. My life flashes before my eyes – including everything that led me to marry this man – and I feel a stronger and deeper commitment to our marriage and all the years that lie ahead of us.
I am so in love with our new house! Isn't this ironic? We've been homeowners for 20 years and yet I love the house we're now renting more than any we've ever owned. I feel like God is sending me a message that if I can just stop taking my cues from the world and rely on Him, I will be much better off. I always thought owning a home represented security. But for where we are right now - this season in our living and learning - shifting this paradigm has freed us up from a burden we have been dragging around for years.
I also have to say that I am SO happy to be leaving the place we've lived for the last five years as the atmosphere here has been so unfriendly and oppressive.
I've shared about the prejudice against my special needs kids. Stories I haven't shared include one neighbor shooting our very small pug with a BB gun the week we moved in because he was on their property. No walking over to introduce himself and ask us to keep him away, just a thick BB lodged in his abdomen which we found after he ran yelping into the house to hide in a closet and which had to be removed by a vet.
Then there was the crazy alcoholic woman who called to berate me because our dogs had been playing together on my property and her dog was in heat. I was supposed to know that? Since her dog was smaller than ours she was freaking out because she said she would probably need an abortion. For some reason, even though our dog had never strayed from our property, she saw this as our fault.
Well, let's just say it's not a warm and welcoming community. When a new neighbor moved in and sent an email to the entire HOA list to tell us a little about herself and ask if anyone was interested in a community garden, I had to smile as I realized she was breaking one of the cardinal rules here by being so friendly and open. It took me a couple years and the eruption of a major issue to understand that one neighbor's hostility towards me began the day I sent a friendly and, in her opinion, too informative email introducing our family to the HOA.
I've since met the new neighbor and she is a wonderful, authentic and down-to-earth person. Wonder how she'll fare here - will it be as isolating as it was for our family? Maybe not. Clearly we were not welcome because our family was "a little different" - bringing in those special ed buses to pick up our kids and all. . . . .
Before we moved here, we lived in Philomont, another teensy country town but with a whole different feeling: where neighbors were very kind and caring. People warned us that Waterford was "snobby." Now we are moving to another teensy town over on the Philomont side of Loudoun. The town is Bluemont and we live off a road called Foggy Bottom. Back to the nicer people, better neighbors. A peaceful place to regroup and spend time as a family - only 15 minutes (instead of 30) from Samantha, Kip and our grandchildren.
All we had to do was let go and let God.
Anyway, here are some photos from yesterday:
Tripp carries me over the threshold - then the girls want to get in on the act:
We live in Bluemont - note the blue door:
I always wanted a front porch and swing. For the first time, we have one - on loan from God:
This fabulous room has shelves on two sides - for a family who loves books, this is heaven!
Two of my handsome sons - Zach, who's been helping us throughout the move and Josh on loan from his sweet wife, Hattie:
Daniel's happy:
Posted in Family, My life | Permalink
Comments
I am so happy for you!!!
The house looks wonderful and the kids look so happy! You are truly a blessed family and you are right, sometimes we just have to let God take the reins and lead us where we need to be.
May you all share many wonderful and loving memories in your new home.
Lots of love!
Posted by: Krysta - momofautism | July 28, 2008 11:57 AM
Looks Lovely. So happy for you!
Posted by: Lora Lynn | July 28, 2008 12:51 PM
Congrats to you and yours! What a beautiful home!
Have fun and enjoy!
Blessings!
Amelia
Posted by: Amelia | July 28, 2008 1:12 PM
Congratulations!
You all look so happy and the house looks just beautiful! Enjoy your memories there.
Posted by: Miri | July 28, 2008 1:13 PM
I love the new house, it looks so homey and you all look so happy.
Posted by: chris | July 28, 2008 2:36 PM
I love the yellow walls and the bookshelves and the open airiness and the front porch and....
I could go on and on! It's beautiful!
Enjoy and may God give you His peace.
Libby
Posted by: Libby | July 28, 2008 2:47 PM
that looks like an absolutely beautiful new place! where are the pics of the pool? =)
Posted by: Phyllis@Aimless Conversation | July 28, 2008 2:48 PM
Your house looks wonderful! I love it. :)
Some days I think that if my husband and I had known our future, we would not have been in such a rush to buy a house, since we can't really afford to live in it, but we can't afford to sell it, either. We love our house and our neighborhood, but I'd give it up in a heartbeat to have more freedom and less responsibility, especially for my dear husband.
I hope you enjoy your wonderful new home and I hope that it is a blessing for your whole family!
Posted by: Lucy | July 28, 2008 5:08 PM
That is a gorgeous house! And you said it's on 14 Virginia acres? Is there room for me??
Posted by: Marian | July 28, 2008 10:09 PM
lovely house, God is soooo good!
Posted by: allena | July 28, 2008 11:51 PM
I am SOOOOOoooooo happy for your whole family!!! look at those pictures! who could NOT love your family? (that just astounds me)...anyway, i am so glad to see your whole family benefiting from this wonderful, WONDERFUL blessing! it truly, truly warms my heart. :)
and isn't God funny? I think He truly gets a kick out of us "thinking outside of the box"...after all, so many of us try to put Him in a box by forgetting He is God and He can do anything, I think situations just like this really make him smile.
Some friends of ours back stateside (before we moved out here) had a very similar experience. house hunted for a long, long time...praying the whole way for the special things they wanted in thier home since they had a larger than "normal" family (6 kids)...their only hang up was "just not in norman, anywhere but norman"...well, their house was in norman! sitting there, waiting the whole time for them to come around to just consider looking in that area. the house has been such a perfect fit for their family (even built in shelving for homeschooling supplies!) they had to laugh when they found it. Here they were waiting on God, ready to give up, beginning to think maybe it wasn't God's timing...and all along God was just waiting for them to start "thinking outside the box." :)
God is SO good. :)
Kristy in England
Posted by: kristy | July 29, 2008 11:47 AM
Looks like a great house that you all are already enjoying! And thank you for sharing what your family is going through, it is inspiring & comforting to me as we approach probably having to give up our house through short sale. Our situation was like Lucy's comment above for a long time, but then my husband was laid off.
Posted by: Alison | July 29, 2008 9:18 PM
