We've moved!! The search for our rural home took on a new vigor after the fall elections seemed to happen with little to no social unrest. Time seemed to stall while the media denied voter fraud, and court cases erupted. Curtis and I started the search in earnest once again, but this time, properties were increasingly unavailable. When entering the criteria for 3 or more bathrooms within 50 miles of our preferred city, there were only 17-20 homes available. We pulled up the home plans we had talked about, and spoke with two home builders out this way to start that process. The land value would have to come down for us to afford new construction, especially with the price of wood inflating more than 188% by March. Milly and Mercy had applied at a Bible College and were awaiting their acceptance letter, when Milly came to us one Saturday morning with a prophetic word. She began to communicate that she believed God wanted us to focus on less acreage and more house. Curtis needed to slow down and reduce his level of responsibility and obligation in order to pay attention to the gift God had placed within him. He had started a book but has yet to finish it. Curtis and I both have knee-jerk reactions to the tyranny of the urgent, and God wanted to strategically place us in a location where we're available for counsel and prayer, but less available for physical demands and responses. We still have 6 children that need our undivided attention and the same opportunities in our parenting that we afforded the grown kiddos. Less fixer upper, no mobile homes (as we'd quickly be planning a site built home), less physical demand, and more infrastructure already in place, more set-in-place peace, more discretionary time on our hands. We felt the confirmation in our spirits and honed our search. As we became intent, we left for an impromptu trip to see property newly listed the day before. When we pulled up the listing to confirm our destination, it was already PENDING!!! We didn't want to waste the trip out, so we headed for an already existing home for sale in which we were interested, and AGAIN.....already "Pending," within hours! The market had turned into a full fledged wildfire! I knew God had something for us. I just KNEW it. So we persisted.
Milly and Mercy were accepted to college, so they began their journey of faith to believe for the funding to make it happen by this fall. But Milly felt the Lord urging her to continue to participate in the relocation of this family although her mind was fully engaged in their college prepping. One Tuesday night, I saw a listing for acreage pop up that intrigued me. I knew we'd have to go out the very next morning to have an opportunity for a contract. Curtis wasn't sure he could break away, so Milly came to me late that night and said, "I wanna go! I'll go with you, Mom." That drive was so much fun, and the roads to the property were breathtaking. We ruled out the acreage, but Curtis called with an address to drive by on the way home. It was only a few miles away. We did. As we approached this house, we were in awe. We parked on the county road out front, and got out to listen to the silence, the wind in the trees, and the cows lowing across the road. The façade was beautiful, the house boasted 5 bedrooms, 4 and a half bathrooms, a pool, fenced with a pond, and outbuildings, all of the infrastructure for which I had prayed. We were screaming with delight and called Curtis back with the message, "THIS IS IT!!!" He came back with me two days after calling the realtor, with the earliest available appointment, and we put a contract on it in the driveway while another family walked through with their realtor. We learned that the owners already had a contract on the table, and ours was the second. Our home was not even listed yet! This started a blitzkrieg process. Within 30 days, we had sold our home and bought a new home, moved 30 chickens, 2 cows (one in milk), 9 kids, and more than 200 boxes 105 miles away. Whew!
This is where this boy will grow up. Welcome, baby, to your knew hometown!
Everybody participated in the process. We had wrappers, packers, lifters, and heavy lifters. I must have made 32 lists preparing everything from the utensils we'd need to eat while everything was packed to the menu to the packing supplies for each room.
I learned a trick from the Texas Christian Home School Prom team. I color coded the boxes by room so that we'd spend less time reading and more time delivering. The girls had met a group from Arkansas through some good friends that volunteered to drive down for moving day and get us fully relocated that weekend, as long as we'd feed them. Not only did we feed them, we hosted a pool party the night the last box, piece of furniture, and appliance was unloaded. I kept out my casserole dish and ingredients for pizza casserole with Italian bread, and we all feasted!
Our new views...
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