NINE MOVES IN EIGHT YEARS
In the past decade my husband, children, and I survived many financial challenges, job changes, health challenges, and NINE MOVES! I’m not sure all our children realize how the past decade truly impacted them. Looking back at my childhood and youth, moving was definitely the marker of many events in my life. And the nine places I’ve called home in the past decade mark a journey of change and growth I’m still trying to understand. Yet, with each one, my husband and I had to step out in faith. We had no guarantees as you can see from the other posts I’ve done in this series.
Though I’ve had the beginnings of this post sitting in my “drafts” folder for weeks despite my intentions of posting for this series once a week starting in January of this yer, I’ve been a bit distracted. First, in preparation for the 2020 Mount Hermon Writers Conference, I’ve been reviewing, rewriting, and refining my manuscript for A Cord of Three. One of the wounds the sisters overcome in the story is one of moving around with their mother until they finally settle in a low-income apartment to finish out high school. Read more about my own childhood and “nomadic life” in my post: A NOMADIC CHILDHOOD – WOUNDS TO WINS SERIES.
For those fortunate enough to grow up in the same house or town your whole life, you are blessed and I hope you didn’t take that stability for granted. But you also can’t know what it’s like to adjust and make the most of life when everything is new and different. More than a new town or living space, there is a settling in one’s soul that requires adjusting as well.
The longest I’ve ever lived anywhere was the seven years my husband and I owned a home here in Idaho. Before that, I think two and half years was the max during our married life. From the outside, it would be hard to tell that one of my main goals as a mom was to prevent my kids from having to experience dozens of moves over their lifetime. Yet, for mostly work-related reasons, my husband and I moved over twenty times in the eleven years it took us to finally buy a house.
So believe me when I say my heart broke for us all when we had to leave that house and start over back in 2011. We had no idea it would take eight years and nine addresses before we would buy a home again. And even now, nearly six months after becoming home owners, I’m still finding it hard to believe this is a permanent home for us.
I do know that home ownership offers more stability than renting in 12-month intervals. And I have no reason to believe we won’t stay here for the foreseeable future. Trust me, we will do whatever it takes NOT to move again for a very long time! 25 years is our goal — but times are changing and things around the world are too uncertain to know if that will happen.
Forward Goals
Still, we’re making this our forever home for now. We have plans to modify the inside spaces to suit our long-term needs. We have lots of potential outside as well and for the spring and summer, my plans are to plant as many trees, shrubs, flowers, and herbs as possible to add to the current oasis and 70 -year history that this property holds.
I’m so grateful to have several creative spaces inside and out where I can write, garden, and gather with friends and family. With all the uncertainty surrounding us, I must keep my eyes on the present and not get too caught up in what the future holds. But that isn’t going to stop me from calling this place my forever home — for however long forever intends to last.