Thursday, July 9, 2015

home sweet home.

A year ago, I wrote THIS post and in it I said,

"If we've learned anything though, it is to wait patiently on what God has for us. And waiting is hard to do." 

And it has been. I'm certain that no one, least of all me, thought that a year later we would be still adventuring in Aaron's parents' basement. We thought we would find that home early fall, but early fall came and went. We decided to hunker down for the winter and continue to save and search for that infamous home we'd been dreaming of. Our realtors started calling it our unicorn home. Aaron's mom was diagnosed with colon cancer in December. We could clearly see God's plan and purpose for her and us in living with them. Winter was hard, but we continued to believe in the Lord's timing and provision for us. All spring we searched for that home. We only found one home that met what we wanted and it didn't work out. The months began to run together. I started to become discouraged. And then, one Friday night at the end of May, we found it. It's a beautiful, old red brick built in 1850 with a barn and a few glorious acres. As I got out of the car, I could hear 'this is the place' ringing in my ears. It was in the perfect location, central to everything and exactly what we'd been looking for. There were reminders of my childhood home everywhere I turned with old radiator heat and the red brick and the honeysuckle growing in the backyard. It was like there was a little piece of Pittsburgh right there in the middle of Chester county for us to live in. And as we walked around, I knew. This was the place. Surprisingly, Aaron agreed.



In the past year, the waiting was hard and so was the uncertainty, but the Lord was good to us. He continued to provide abundantly for our needs. He knew that we would be there to encourage, help and distract Diane through surgery and (almost to the exact day) her hard 6 months of chemo. He knew that house wouldn't show up on the market until May 29th and didn't give us desire for anything less than what we'd been hoping, dreaming and praying for.


So, as of today, we are homeowners once more. We bought a house that will hopefully be ours for a long time. Our daughter will be born here. Our kids will start school here. We hope to grow old here together. We will have new memories, new adventures, and certainly more challenges. We are so grateful for this last year. We are so grateful for the Windles and their love and generosity in sharing their home with us. We are grateful for the way the last year stretched us and challenged us. And more than anything we are grateful that this year has shown us with complete certainty that home is found with each other and not in a place.