I
may have shed a tear or two at the thought of leaving our house on Lairds Woods
Circle. It has been a wonderful home for the last almost five years. Lots of
great memories happened there. We moved in with a joyfully-expected baby in the
womb, an adorable almost 3 year old and a funny barely 5 year old. We moved out
with a wild and affectionate four year old, a sweet and funny 7 and a half year
old and a caring and energetic almost ten year old!
Oh,
how we’ve all changed and grown in our time there. We experienced an abundance
of great times and a sprinkling of very hard times. We watched our little
family swell with joy and hold fast under the grief of losing our two babies in
the womb, Gabriel and Nathanael. We grew closer to the Lord through praising
Him in the good times and trusting Him in the tough ones.
We
filled our house and back yard (and even the surrounding woods) with family and
many friends. We took walks to the lake to fish and feed catfish. We explored
trails in the trees. We caught fireflies and watched deer, coyotes, turkeys and
a few roadrunners. We played in the snow and enjoyed the Worlds Most Epic
backyard 100 ft slip and slide! We decked our halls indoors and out to
celebrate our Lord’s birth. We awoke for Christmas morning and rang in the new
year (well before midnight) with many cherished friends. Those walls heard more
laughter than could be counted and some tears that only My Lord captured in a
bottle(Psalm 56:8)(and for the sake of being real, a few too many raised Mommy
voices at times). We read books before bed and watched movies all snuggled on
an air mattress in the living room floor. Mike and I sat on the back porch and
felt like our hearts couldn’t be more full as we watched our sweet boys romp
and play on the trampoline, climb in the tree house and roll in the grass.
After many years of rejecting pets (except two Beta fish(shhh…the boys think
there was only one who lived a long time. We agreed to get cats and welcomed
two cute little kittens, Jessie and Josie, into our family. Those two little
kitties got lots of love! We were sad when Josie disappeared but enjoyed
bringing little Jovie into our home. Jessie wasn’t thrilled at first but
quickly adjusted. In those 5 years we took a few really great trips (Disney
World, Branson, Iowa, Hawaii and a few more) but we always loved coming back to
our own home. It made this Mom’s heart happy to have her boys always say how
much they loved to be home. When we first lived in that house Isaac hadn’t even
started kindergarten. Now as we move out he is about to go into 4th grade and
Elijah will go into 2nd grade.
Jeremiah
will (hopefully he’ll cooperate) be starting some Pre-k lessons at
home
in the fall. When we moved in Mike and I were about to celebrate our 6th
year
anniversary. Now we have sailed past the 10 year mark and are more in love and
can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for our family. It’s hard to think
of leaving the Lairds Woods house but God has already proven that He has great
things in the works.
On
March 7th, 2013 (and the week prior) our hearts were heavy with the
acknowledgement of the 2 year anniversary of the death of our baby Gabriel. We
decided it was time to do the much-dreaded task of picking out grave markers
for our two babies. Since we believed firmly that, even in the womb (lost at
4.5 and almost 6 months pregnant), they were people with value we felt it was
only right to honor them as such. I had never even visited the site where they
were buried. It was too painful and I felt I had said my goodbyes already. But,
I felt as if I should. Only a cold and dreary
day
Mike and I (while the boys were with Nana and PaPa) walked out onto a brown field
at a cemetery and I saw where they had been buried. My heart felt kind of numb
and heavy. I knew that they weren’t in the dingy grass but walking in perfection
on streets of gold in the presence of my Savior. I knew I would see them
someday and all tears would be gone and all things would be made perfect. That
was a tough day (few days really).
The
next day we were about to go get the boys at my parents’ house and Mike said
that first he wanted to drive by and see some land he saw for sale. Our
long-term dream had always been to buy about 10 acres of land a little farther
out of town and build a home in the woods. We envisioned a retreat for our
family and friends and a place for our boys to grow and explore God’s creation.
We didn’t know if or when that dream would be fulfilled but we certainly dreamed
about and discussed it often. Inthe past few years the Lord had blessed Mike
very unexpectedly with advancements in his career that had made this dream seem
more possible. We drove to this land, which was only about a ten minute drive
from our current house, and saw a 10 acre plot full of oak and cedar trees. In
the early spring it was hard to tell how it would look in full bloom but we
could definitely see potential. We began to get cautiously excited. Mike called
the realtor and found out that the price was under what he had expected. After
praying for a few days and showing it to my parents for their opinion we made
an offer! It was accepted and the realtor told Mike that there had been two
more offers already and someone had wanted to purchase all 30 acres that were
for sale together. We felt like God blessed us that we got it! We couldn’t
believe this adventure
was
happening! We talked to our friend at church who is an amazing home builder and
began pouring over the abundance of house plans on the internet. We got some
pretty good ideas of what we wanted but couldn’t settle on one plan. After staring
at computer screens until our eyes were almost crossed, we decided to find the
one we liked most and have an architect alter it. The first architect we
checked into was good but very pricey. I began to get worried and discouraged
again (Mike, of course, remained the calm one to talk me off my ledge). Then,
God showed himself faithful again. One day at Elijah’s baseball practice I was
chatting with a Dad of a teammate and he said he was a builder and a painter. I
asked if he knew any good architects. He immediately threw out a name and a
great recommendation. (Turns out he had worked with our builder, Pete, for
years too) We checked into the guy he mentioned and got nothing but great
reports of his work and his prices couldn’t be beaten. We were going to save
several thousand dollars by going with him! Thanks again, Lord! But, just wait.
That’s only the beginning of the ways we’ve been amazed at His provision.
We
decided that we weren’t going to begin the building process until we had sold
our house in order to avoid getting in a financial bind if ours didn’t sell
quickly. We began packing things up to de-clutter and making some improvements
in order to get the house ready to show to potential buyers. We planned to try
and sell it ourselves for a few weeks to try to save on realtor fees. Our goal
was to begin showing it by June 1<sup>st</sup>. I posted the
information about it on facebook and asked friends to spread the word. We had
one family show a bit of interest but the location wasn’t what they were
wanting. I was anxious that it wouldn’t sell but tried my best to trust God.
Again, Mike was always calm and assured me it would all work out. He’s so
annoying like that. :)
On
May 3, I sent a text to Isaac’s piano teacher asking her a question. She wrote
back saying; “It’s funny that you texted me. My husband (who is a realtor)
would like the info on your house. One of his clients is looking in your
neighborhood. Would you mind emailing me info?” I told Mike and said ”Yes!,”
and sent her the info. The potential buyers were coming into town May
13th and wanted to see it then. We spent a whirlwind 10 days whipping that
house into shape and prayed a lot. They saw it twice and were ready to make an
offer by the end of that week! We were thrilled and shocked that we sold our
house before we even planned to show it!! We started saying, “Wow, Lord!
This dream might actually happen!” The offer they made was even at the price
we were asking for the house! Amazing! My faith started getting a little less
shaky at this point. Then we heard they wanted to close by June 28th. We had
about 6 weeks to secure a rental house and move!
We
began searching for houses while also finishing up the school year and
beginning to pack. Then, at the end of May a devastating tornado hit Moore, OK
just north of us. While we were mostly grateful for our safety and that of all
our friends, we became a bit concerned with how this would affect the rental
housing market. It definitely did. Rental houses were very hard to come by.
Most would not accept pets and wanted a full year lease. We knew we would only
need the house for about 6-9 months. I started to worry again. One realtor told
me that with the time of year and the current housing need that it was very
unlikely to get a lease for less than and year and to look into apartments. I
reached out on facebook again to see if anyone knew of a house available. I
also began searching apartments. I began to resign myself to the fact that we
might get an apartment and a storage unit. That did NOT sound fun with 3 kids
and 2 cats but I knew we could do anything for a short time. I comforted myself
and the boys with the fact that apartments have pools. Then, on May 31, while
we were driving to get out of town for another big thunderstorm, Mike got a
text from Pete. It said something to the affect of, “My wife said you guys are
looking for a rental house. I have a house coming available at the end of June.
If we all survive this storm I’ll show it to you soon if you’re interested”;.
HA! Um, Yes please! Seriously, Lord?!? Needless to say we were all unharmed
(except a bit of hail damage to our car) and we saw the house. We loved it! It
was just what we were wanting. It was smaller so we could save some money, not
far from our current house or the land, on a quiet cul-de-sac with a big
backyard. And the price was less than what we thought we would pay for some
apartments! Since Pete was building our house, he didn’t even have us sign a
lease but said we could just live there until the house is finished. Could that
have happened any more perfectly?!? I started thinking we must be heading in
the right direction since God continued to bless our plans and answer our
prayers beyond what we expected. I’m not saying God would’ve been less good or
faithful if we were in an apartment but we were grateful for his abundant
provision
We
moved into the rental house this past weekend. (or are still moving). We were
amazed at how well everything fits. It’s less than half the square footage of
our Lairds Woods house. I am not unpacking everything. We are living a “minimalist”
existence for the next few months. I’ll have to do dishes more often and go grocery
shopping more frequently. There is certainly no spare room to leave piles of
laundry or toys laying around. This may be good for the boys and me to make
some better habits. The boys are super excited. Isaac commented on how big the
rental house is! Jeremiah is making us laugh by calling it “Pete’s house” So, I
guess according to him, we are living in Pete’s House for the next few months.
The house is cute and cozy. I’m hoping this time with less “stuff”; can be a
good lesson for us all that we don’t need so much stuff in order to be happy. I’m
praying we learn some lasting lessons that we’ll take with us. We are viewing
this as part of a big adventure and enjoying it.
Our
land is a beautiful field full of big, beautiful trees. There are a few rolling
slopes and a couple nice clearings. We have already found an area that Mike and
the boys have dubbed the Camping Spot. We also came across an area with some
big rocks jutting out over a sloped area. There are not many trees over it. We
have decided that will be the perfect spot to do some star gazing and cloud watching.
We have dreams of many summer evenings with friends and family outside. We look
forward to seeing it covered in snow too. Our desire is to build a home that
can be a great place for our boys and their friends to have lots of great
adventures and enjoy God’s world. We plan to host family holidays and parties
with friends for many years to come. We imagine that our grandkids will come
back and enjoy this place like my children do my childhood home. We want our
home to be a retreat from the world and a blessing to our family and others. We
want to glorify God with our home and all our lives. We want it to always be
our boys’ favorite place to be. Both Mike and I grew up in a similar setting
and loved it.
As
we were out walking on the land last week and discussing where the house and
the yard would be, I looked around at all the beautiful trees. Most of them are
huge oak trees. I immediately thought of the passage in Isaiah 61:3 “that they
may be called oaks of Righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be
glorified. I prayed that passage for my sweet boys and for all of us. I so
desire that my children will grow to be strong men of God, rooted deeply in God’s
Word, who will stand firm through whatever God allows in their lives. As I read
this passage I was astonished to realize that it is contained in another passage
that I felt the Lord revealed to me in a really amazing time in my life on a
mission trip to the Middle East in college. The larger passage is “The Spirit
of the has anointed me to bring good news to
the poor, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to
the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim
the year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who
mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion to give them a beautiful headdress
instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of
praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness
that he may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:1-3.
I
realize that this passage was written by the prophet Isaiah regarding a
specific situation but really when you think about it, it’s the mission of all
believers. As people who have been saved from our sins by Jesus’ death and resurrection,
we are anointed by God to bring good news to everyone and set captives free
from the grips of sin and death. (Romans 6:17-18).
We
are also given the ministry of reconciliation that does heal broken hearts, comforts
the mourning, and results in praise to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-21) When we live
this out in the power of the Holy Spirit, God is glorified in us. How amazing
is God that He would show me that passage as I was seeking Him in the summer of
1999 and would bring it back in a new way in the summer of 2013? I can’t praise
Him enough and am in awe of His abundant grace to me since I am so unworthy. He
has been so good to me. Even in the hardest times in the past few years, He was
SO good. Even if I had never seen this dream of ours fulfilled, He would still
be so very good. But, since He is blessing us in this way, I want to give Him
glory and share it with others. If no one but me reads this, it will be a good
way for me to remember for years to come what He has done. I can’t wait to
watch the rest of this journey play out.
Our boys have changed a lot in the years that we lived in our house at Lairds Woods Circle.
Then:
Now:
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