How We Got Here

That is, How We Got Here - to the place that was pretty near the bottom of the list of places we thought we might want to be.

When we finally got to the place in our lives where buying an acreage in the country was a real option for us, we were really excited about it. I grew up on a little farm and was soooo ready to get back to that lifestyle. My husband grew up in the city but he's a country boy at heart and was more than ready to start the homesteading adventure. So, we started talking about what we wanted. We had already gone from city to small town and really liked our town, so we knew if we were going to leave it, it had to be for the place that really felt just exactly right for our family. Once we had the (long) list of all the things we wanted in the house, land, outbuildings, and surrounding towns we started searching real estate. One thing that was NOT on our list of specifications was the area of the country we wanted to live in. We were open to anything in that regard. So, we found properties we liked online and started traveling.

We saw some truly amazing places and made some wonderful memories for our family.

But each time we thought "maybe this is it", there always ended up being something that just wasn't quite right for us. Finally, after about a year and a half of searching in multiple states we thought we had figured out where we wanted to be. In fact, we felt pretty sure. We had already been there a few times, spent a good amount of time there on those visits, and done lots of research. We found a couple houses that looked pretty good in the area, had our realtor check them out for us, and hit the road again to meet with our realtor and see them in person. We went on this trip full of confidence and ready to put in an offer.

These were great houses in a really nice place. They had a bit of land and were in our price range.  Brand new houses and wide open spaces.

It was lovely.

BUT

I really love old houses. I find something warm and comforting in a house many generations have lived in. And I really like trees. Big, deciduous, ones that have been living with all those generations of people for all those years. There was nothing wrong with these properties we were looking at, but my heart just wasn't in it. I didn't want to say anything to my husband because I still thought it was his dream place and I wasn't going to ruin that for him. If it was what he wanted then I wanted it for him. Little did I know he was thinking the same thing. Then one evening in our hotel room he very hesitantly said "so....do you want to go home...maybe?" I did. I really did. We threw our stuff in the car and left the next morning.

When we got back we were feeling kind of low. We had felt so sure that this was going to be it and it felt like a dream was ending. We talked about it a lot and decided that we would keep our options open, but kind of put the search on the back burner. So, life went on. 

Then my husband was looking at random places online one evening (because even though we had mostly given up...well...dreams die hard) and found an acreage for sale. An hour and a half from where we lived. Seven miles from where my Dad grew up and where some of the family still live. The house was an old 1890 farmhouse. With lots of big trees. And more land than anything else we had looked at.

I didn't get excited this time but agreed to go up and at least drive by the place. Then we drove to the house and I realized it was in a location I loved. Far enough "out", but close enough to a small town and a few neighbors to not be totally isolated. We called our  realtor and took a closer look. And immediately fell in love. Hubby and I were walking through one of the barns and we looked at each other and said "This is it". My Dad was with us (my folk's acreage was getting to be too much for them to take care of and they were wanting to move with us)  and when he walked in the door of the house he said "This feels like home". Yep, it was home. An hour and a half away after we had traveled halfway across the country looking for it.

And that is How We Got Here.

God's plans are so much better than our own!

This post was shared over at http://www.impartinggrace.com/, http://www.myturnforus.com,  http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com/  , on Tuesday's With A Twist and at http://summersacres.blogspot.com for the Thankful Homeacre hop!