this might sound like a harsh title..."why we are NOT telling people where we are moving"...but it seems to be fitting for us right now.
I think I am a fairly open person...actually a little bit naive sometimes...so this title isn't harsh but it's necessary to spare our feelings just a little....
Here in America...we want bigger and better and I'm sure I am naive to think that no other country has it like we have it ... but I am convinced that the majority of our culture thinks, "if you want it...get it!" There are ways to live the "American Dream"...whatever that is. I definitely think there is something in my generation where we think we can get or deserve a house better than our parents house, even though they worked their butts off for 20 years to get it!
We are incredibly blessed. Is that statement overused? Absolutely but I truly feel that from the bottom of my heart...we have been truly blessed. Nine years ago we were engaged and looking at house after house, trying to figure out where we were going to love. Nine years ago you couldn't find a cheap house...everything was so expensive...when the market was booming. We did the math and decided we could build cheaper than we could buy because we could do most of the work ourselves. So we did. We spent the first year of our marriage barely seeing each other. Brian would work all day and drive to the house we were building and work work work...I became pregnant and so that was extra hard on us. We didn't deserve this house and when it was finished we vowed to God that we would use it for him. By His prompting...he brought people here who needed to sleep...people here who needed fellowship...he brought a core group of Senior Highers to our house every Saturday night for a few years...where we just were ourselves...allowing them in a home that had a stable family...to eat, laugh, sing, study the bible and hang out!
It is so counter cultural for someone who has a beautifully built NEW home to want to sell it and downsize to an older home and smaller. It's been proven that people do not understand. When you ask me where we are moving and I open up to you about it...something personal. A decision that was clearly made between my husband and God...these are the responses we've received so far...
"you're crazy!"
"why would you want to move to a smaller house?"
"um...I hear you have four boys and I hear you're moving to a super small house?"
"um...I don't know if you know...but you do have four boys!"
"well...haha..you're more ambitious than I am"
"you'll never finish it...kids take up too much of your time...you'll be working on it until the last kid graduates"
"I have no idea why you would even think of moving there"
Obviously this is hurtful...this makes us hesitate to tell anyone else where we are moving. Because honestly...it's attacking us...even though you may not think so.
So before I do a whole blog post with pictures on the house we are moving to...let me tell you our reasons.
1. First of all...we have been in prayer about this house for a long time now. God has been clear in answering those prayers.
2. This house is literally 5 minutes away from Brian's work
3. This house is on an amount of acreage that makes brian feel like a kid again
4. This house is on the Muskegon River and my husbands main hobby with the boys is fishing
5. we LOVED building our home and making it our own...because this house is so small we are able to build onto it and still make it our own.
6. This house will never be the size of our house now...even if we add child #5 someday...and we're okay with that because we WANT to and are choosing to live a more simple life...our decision...we don't want so many THINGS laying around everywhere...
7. This is a place we see ourselves retiring in...even if God chooses us to move somewhere else again...we are making decisions right now...for the future but are always aware of God leading us somewhere else.
8. This is NOT too far of a drive for us to still attend our church which we love and are growing tremendously in
9. we can see our boys growing up there...
Later this week or early next I'll be doing a blog post on the house and the pictures of what we plan to do to it...and I just ask that if you have an opinion against it...that you keep it to yourself...because you don't have to live there...we are not interrupting your life by moving here....I wouldn't even think about coming into your house and critiquing what you've decided to do with your life...so I just simply as for respect? And understanding for if you ask about where we're moving...this explains why there is hesitation.
Excited to blog our new adventure with you all!
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