Little House

Today we got a call for someone to view our house...finally!! After two weeks of it being on the market! So after 40 minutes of rushing to get it ready, we headed out-dogs and all. Isaac wanted to know what all the fuss was about so I told him people were going to look at our house so we can sell it. He got sad and said he didn't want to sell the house. I told him what a fun adventure it will be to pack up all our stuff and move to a new house...apartment...house, he doesn't know the difference! He asked if there would be new toys at the new house and when I said there might just be, he was ready to go! Oops...maybe I should have waited on having this conversation!

After a nice lunch, we stopped in at our city's new African American Museum. We missed the dedication ceremony last Saturday. :( It is a little house that was once in the segregated part of the city called QuakerTown. Here is a picture of it in 1945. Most of the other houses in Quakertown were torn down to build a city park and university, but this house survived. So they picked it up and moved it near the square next to another museum (seen partially on the left) and then spent 2 years restoring it.Here it is restored. It is the tiniest house I've ever seen...three-rooms...a living room w/fireplace, kitchen, and bedroom. At times black families with 3 and 4 kids all lived in this little home. Inside are pictures and descriptions of the time when the town was segregated. We saw school houses and businesses. It was really neat.

So they parked it next to this victorian looking doll-house/museum. As we pulled out onto the street, I looked back at the two sitting side-by-side and I thought how ironic. You have this grand house obviously owned by a wealthy white family and next to it a tiny little place owned by black families. Once in two different parts of town, now neighbors! If the walls in those places could talk!

And it occured to me, that we will be saying goodbye to our 2,000 square foot house, with all the memories good and bad....trading it in for half the living space. We bought this house one year after we married, and we quickly began to live in it. This is the house we brought home our sweet puppy Lucy into, crate trained her and fell in love with dogs. This is the house whose door was opened for countless parties and showers we've hosted. This house welcomed a young college graduate for the summer while he was awaiting a discipleship program. This is the house whose rooms sat empty for a year and a half while we struggled to have children. This is the house that we fostered dogs for the Humane Society and found them permanent homes. This house was approved for foster care and saw 4 babies come and 3 leave. This is the house that our son came home to and stayed. And the place that we brought our baby home from the hospital to. This home welcomed our tiny fur-ball, Oscar. The dusty baseboards, scuffed-up walls, and stained carpet tell the story of our married life. It feels like so much of who we are has happened here. It is sad to have to say goodbye to a home that has been so good to us. But all things are temporary. We want to be careful not to get too comfortable in this world as this was never meant to be our forever home, that is what Heaven is for!

We came the 2 of us, with money in the bank...and we leave here the 6 of us with just enough gas money to get out of town! :)

And we are much richer leaving than when we came.

We will go to a place with 2 bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. And it will be more than enough. It will be the springboard into the future and what God has for our ever-growing family. We look forward to the journey that awaits us, and rest peacefully in our Lord who always knows just what we need and faithfully provides. As fun as it is to have a place that you can paint and decorate, host parties and holidays...to Billy and I it is more significant to have a family to raise and souls to shape for eternity. That is what we want to continue to invest in.