Finding our new home and saying good-bye to our old home

“Always in the big woods when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread.  It is the ancient fear of the unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going to.” – Wendell Berry

Our moving date was one week away, and we had NO idea where we were going to live. (Click here to read about it!)

The ONE family we knew in town mentioned that their neighbor had just moved out. She called to see if the home was available for rent. Thankfully, miraculously, the person who had been renting that home had moved out two weeks early, providing an opening for us to move into the home in SIX days!

“Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building                                                                    your wings on the way down.” – Ray Bradbury

Ted had to fly back to Chicago, so our sweet friend offered to meet the agent at the potential rental home in Colorado Springs to give us an iChat walking tour. The house was PERFECT! It was a four bedroom house on a cul-de-sac, in a great neighborhood, with a gorgeous view of Pike’s Peak – and within our budget! We immediately signed a 12-month lease, waited for approval and FIVE days before we were scheduled to move, we had a home!!

Thank you Lord! I can breathe again!

Saying the actual “good-byes” to our Illinois friends, and my Indiana family, was harder than I expected it to be. These are the people who loved us, encouraged us, worked with us, supported us through the births of each of our four sons! They had watched our boys grow and had loved them so well. My Indiana family had only been 3 hours away for the last 13 years. I could pop over any weekend and for any event. Now everything was changing. Our DREAM was being realized, but we were leaving a part of ourselves behind. And that was hard. (Honestly, it’s still hard. There are so many good people that we miss in Illinois, and I still miss not being able to drive over to see my family in Indiana whenever I want.)

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

In September 2015 –  we left Illinois, the place that we had called “home” for the last 13 years, to make a new start in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

When we arrived, something happened that shocked me. I’ll tell you about it my next post. (Subscribe→ so you won’t miss it)