Our life has seemingly been chaos and disorder for a long period of time. It all started back in 2009. My husband and I bought a foreclosure home that was frozen in time- 1978 to be exact and we slow-leaked our way through the necessary renovations for 7 years.
The early days
During that time, Chuck got his Master’s degree, joined me in the field of education, we had two gorgeous baby boys and then decided it was time to sell everything we owned and move to the Middle East (doesn’t everyone do that?). The two of us grabbed some idle teenagers, some paint brushes, babysitters and determination and got to work. We fixed our house up, adopted one of said teenagers, and with our then 2 and 4 year old boys and our bonus blessing, a 15 year old daughter, we moved to the other side of the world.
We lived out a grand adventure for 4 years and then put the whole process in reverse during a global pandemic and came home. The United Arab Emirates was marvelous and transformative in our lives. I will write more detailed posts about that later, maybe for the rest of my life, but back to the present…
Well, little did we know, the market was just getting warmed up when we sold our old house in 2016. When we returned in 2020, we found that we were priced way out of what we had previously lived in and it would require a miracle for us to get a home that would be a comfortable size for our family of 5.
God had spoken to my heart back in 2017 that indeed, that was actually His plan. So we waited patiently, and sometimes impatiently in my parent’s basement for a year for just the right house. Boy did He deliver!
Chuck and I used to walk through the neighborhood and always loved this house. We mentioned several times that if the owners ever downsized, we would love to buy it. Isn’t it amazing how God plants dreams in our hearts years before He plans to fulfill it?
Our search was finally over
We purchased this big blue beauty late this spring from a dear neighbor of 7 years that we lived across the street from before we embarked on our Arabian odyssey. She knew our family and our story and wanted us to have her home, so blessing upon blessing and miracle upon miracle, she sold us this house at a price that we could afford. We are so thankful for her and her kindness. She and her late husband will always have a special place in our hearts and an honorary place in our home. The memories that she shared with us and the 27 years that she spent building home with her family will always echo lovingly through these walls.
So, we find ourselves thankfully and wearily, in a new kind of chaos.…across the street from our old, now finished, home. Our new home is slightly bigger than our old one, with a flatter, sunnier yard whhich is perfect for gardening and a better floor plan. The home has new windows, updated heating and air and a fantastic, wrapped crawl space with a dehumidifier system. All that it required when we bought it was new flooring, wallpaper removal, the popcorn to be scraped off every ceiling, paint, a wall removal and then replacing, and paint on every single surface, so basically, a complete renovation. We are so blessed, but so tired.
However, as I reflect on these things, I am reminded that not all chaos is bad. The world was in chaos when God spoke time and order into existence and set about the work of creation. Now, I’m not comparing us to God by any means, but on a much smaller and significantly less consequential way, our creative work began in a similar fashion. We have a space to fix up and fill, we must order our things and find them a home and in the meantime, we must work and live here. We are making home, again.
Whatever is worth having is worth working for
So, our weeds right now are the sheer volume of hours and energy spent renovating and fixing up our home. We are thankful, but tired and the end, although in sight, is a piece down the road. Our life is here amongst the construction and our things do not have a home yet, so its a mess. We have started work and school and since I am working from home, much of the weight is on me. My dear hubby does what he can afterschool and on the weekends.
Some may have a lower tolerance for this sort of living, but we have found beauty in it as well. We have rekindled the friendships of old neighbors (and taken full advantage of the help they offer!). Our family has bonded even more through this process. Most importantly, it has also shown our kids that hard work is nothing to fear and they have experienced the victories of perseverance. Our children have many other kids to play with and have found their place in this new-to-them-old-to-us community. I am seizing this opportunity to make my wildest dreams come true. I will be blogging about this process and hope to encourage others, maybe even you, dear reader, to find the beauty and blessing in your own chaos. So stay with me, this is the beginning and we shall find and become the Flowers In These Weeds…
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