Good Things Come In Small Packages.

Winter Park, Florida
another great drive-by

When we bought our first home, I dreamed constantly of the next one we would live in.
We would drive through neighborhoods and talk about what we wanted in our next home,
and it was always more space, you know, bigger and better.

I'm sure my dreams started to change when we had finished renovating our third home about five years ago.
My husband was away on a mission trip with the students from our church, and I was holding down the fort.
While away at the grocery store, some workers from the city were shrieking the underground sewage system.
Something went wrong and all the sewage from the city exploded through every open drain in our home.
I came home with our two boys and a car full of groceries to find our house flooded.  destroyed.

One thing is for sure.
You figure out who you really are when something in your life goes against your plans.
I didn't like who I was that summer.
I felt turned inside out and totally exposed.
My *stuff* was gone.

I didn't like that the material possessions mattered so much to me.
The whole situation caught me off guard.
I never knew they were that important until i didn't have some of them anymore.

We moved into our fourth home and once again enjoyed renovating it.
We had made a huge dent in the process when we realized we'd be moving to Orlando.
The house wasn't a dream home, but I loved many parts of it, especially the kitchen.

the job in orlando provided us with a parsonage to live in.
it's a home that is sometimes given to pastors' families to live in while they serve in a particular position. 

It's funny to live in a home that isn't ours and love it so much.
When you can't knock down walls, add hardwoods to the bedrooms, or get rid of popcorn ceilings...
You're kind of forced content to work on the relationships living inside the home.


Can you see a theme?
A life lesson that I have learned is that houses are just houses and stuff is just stuff at the end of the day.
Again.  I would've said that I knew that, but what do you really know until it's all put to a test?

All these years and lessons later, my desires have changed.
My idea of a dream  home is different.
It's smaller than I imagined.
It's paid for.
It overflows with love from a great marriage and joyful children.

I love the idea of "smaller house...bigger life."