My House Echoes

It feels so strange...to be living in it with only our clothes, sleeping bags, and a few odds and ends.


This whole thing is surreal to me...




...4 years, 6 months, and 9 days...





That's how long we've lived in this pretty little valley in central New York.  Not all that long, really.

We had a dream and a plan...I had...expectations...as our little convoy cruised northward from southeastern PA.  A 7 to 10-year plan, actually... 

I was gonna love it up here...make lots of new friends...be part of a new homeschool community where I would teach classes at a co-op...become part of a church family just like the one we had to leave behind...

And, Don was going to be around more for our kids, but we'd be comfortable, financially, based on the verbal promises of the seed company that moved us up here.

Reality began to sink in around month #5...this was a very different place than the one we left behind, and not the situation for which we'd hoped.

But, I kept trying, despite the heartache of loss...those daily and weekly interactions with friends and a church family that I had taken for granted.  And, our family, whom we only visited about every six weeks or so, but we knew they were just a phone call away if we needed anything.

By our first anniversary here, we did have a couple of good friends...those few who we will miss now, but since they have been woven into the fabric of our lives, we are confident we'll continue to fellowship with them periodically.

I recall a day right after Don left his position with the seed company when I pleaded with him and with God to make a way for us to move home asap...nope.

Several months (and two more employers) later, my prayer had changed to "God, please help me connect to this place, help me to make it my home, help me to make some deep meaningful connections here, so I'll stop longing for the community... and the climate ...that I had back in Pennsylvania.



To some degree, He answered that prayer, but He never took away that underlying desire to move back to southeastern PA.  Oh sure, that longing quieted for a couple of months here and there, but it never left me...And, Don admitted to me, he had that longing sometimes, too.  When he prayed about it, God answered him with "Not yet...Run your race right here for now."  So, we surrendered.

So much has happened over the last 4+ years, most folks' heads would spin!  God certainly crammed lots of lessons for all 6 of us into this chapter of our lives!


I admit, my struggle with discontentment is on-going and real - something God has really been working on with me for close to a decade...And, particularly, in the last three years!  Yep - I was well into my thirties before I even recognized, or rather admitted,  I had an issue with it, and apparently, I am a painfully slow learner!

Even now, a small part of me is not content with moving to the Reading area because it is not within the circumference of the area I know like the back of my hand, in Lancaster County.  You mean, I have to learn a new area, new roads, new stores, new doctors and vets, another homeschool community...AGAIN?  C'mon!  I'm getting too old for this!   Well, after nearly 5 years of being nearly 5 hours from all that was familiar to me...to only being 1 hour away... I CHOOSE to be very grateful!





And, ya know - It's an easy 3 and a half hour drive for William to come visit...only 45 minutes for Nathaniel... Both sons can have their own lives, but, yet, be close enough to stay connected with us!






We've done so much work on this property, and we love it!  Sure, we had many more ideas for improving it, for making it work for us...if only it were even 200 miles south...within 2 hours of our old stomping grounds, we wouldn't be selling it tomorrow!




About 14 hours from now, we will pass the torch to new owners...I've met them...they will grow to love this property as much as we have, and I'm sure they'll quickly make it their own.  In fact, even today, they came by for their final walk-though, Don and Will helped them store some of their heavy things in the pole barn, and they gave us a delicious loaf of homemade bread!





I wonder if they would mind if we stop by sometime next spring to see how they've improved the place?  Well, we'll do a drive by, at least!

I've rambled long enough...Watch for my first post from our property in PA later this week.

Pray that Don doesn't choke anyone at settlement tomorrow, after the long, difficult road we've had with these so-called professionals, that the weather cooperates for safe travels, that Penny has outgrown her motion sickness, and that our horses load into the trailer without too much shenanigans, ehem, Isaac.

I got one more too long, too hot shower before I'm livin' the camper lifestyle for the next four months!  Hasta Luego, Friends!