the desire of our hearts - part 1

We spent the last four years living in a small neighborhood in a rural area.  The well water smelled of chlorine and we wouldn't drink it so we bought gallons of water and spent a few cents refilling them at the grocery store.  At night we'd be serenaded by coyotes, sometimes close, sometimes just a faint call in the distance.  Mornings brought the sound of roosters crowing, a multitude of birds singing the sun into the sky.  Trips into town were most often thought out and methodical.  If I needed to go to the grocery store I'd plan the other five stops I could make since I was "headed to town".

And our house.  Our dear little home.  We lost 400 square feet when we moved there.  Downsizing became an art form.  And we grew cozy.  But it was always cold.  Even in the middle of summer, like an ice box.  Drafty, chilly, never warm.  And dark.  We were surrounded by tall evergreen trees so sunlight was sparse, a nice ray in the mornings around 10:00 that my kitty used to lay in when she was alive, and about 10 minutes worth in the evening through the bedroom windows.

When we made the decision to move into town I knew there would be some adjustments.  We'd lose that rural feel.  I'd miss all those varieties of birds.  There'd be an array of different people, maybe some not so upstanding.  Would we have any peace and quiet?  Could we make another house feel like home?

We have a friend here in town, a Christian we met through the wrestling club.  He is a real estate agent and we knew he'd help us in our search for a home.  From day one we knew he only had our best interest in mind.

Our price range was minimal, we've been down the road of overextending ourselves on a mortgage and it never ends well.  So we kept our numbers low, humble, modest.  This meant that some of the places we looked at were ssssccaaarrrryy, foreclosures with loads of work to be done.  Of course we looked at them with a discerning eye, trying to find potential in the bones.

There was a house the boys and I liked, very close to the library, old and kind of funky.  There was a house Aaron liked, wood floors and woodstove.  And there was another house that as soon as we walked in we felt as if it were home.  But we each kept that close, not wanting to get our hopes up, not wanting to jump into anything.

Two months later we signed the papers for that very house.  God really did give us the desire of our hearts.

To be continued...