Put Your Suitcases in the Car

So...my parents are moving in next weekend.  As in moving in to our house.  Yep.  And it's all my fault.  ;)  Here is the story of why...

Have you seen the movie God's Not Dead?  Just a fair warning, I'm about to give a little tiny, tiny part away...but it won't ruin anything major if you haven't seen it yet.

Throughout the movie, a pastor and his missionary friend are trying to go to Disney.  The first attempt, the car won't start.  No matter what they do, it just won't start.  So they decide to get a rental.  When it arrives a day later, it wouldn't start either.  Sometime after that, the rental place returns with another car.  The pastor gets in to start it and it won't start.  Just an absolutely ridiculous chain of events.  Finally, towards the end of the movie, after all of the major plot stuff is wrapped up...they decide to pack their suitcases and try again...with the pastor's car that wouldn't start in the first place.  They are standing in the parking lot with all of their suitcases and the pastor decides he's going to try the car out before they get packed up.  But his missionary friend reminds him that they have prayed and need to have faith - "Put your suitcases in the car."  They did.  Then got in the car and it started!

My parents have been trying to sell their house and move for over 2 years.  They live an hour from us and our church (where my dad is the pastor).  He makes that drive almost every single day, occasionally twice in a day.  But no one was biting on the sale - it isn't exactly a seller's market around here.  They had a couple approach them about renting to own but weren't comfortable going that route.  Well a weekend or two before mother's day, they found a place they really liked down our way.  But they were frustrated because they hadn't sold and couldn't do anything about it any ways.

As we sat around during our Mom's Day picnic, I looked at both of them and asked a serious question: "You've prayed about this.  You know God wants you down here.  So what are you doing to exercise your faith?"  And then, referencing God's Not Dead, which we had just recently seen, I added, "It's time to put your suitcases in the car."  So they did.  And brought them all to our house.  haha.

You see, they decided to work something out with the couple who wanted to rent to own.  Then they made an offer on the house that they liked based on what they could afford.  Even though it wasn't unreasonable, their offer was not accepted.  But their house was sold.  So where are they to go??  The only logical conclusion was our place.

Thankfully, our house is very decent sized.  There is a very large garage upstairs that we only used as storage and work space.  It is to one day become our master suite and laundry room.  Well, it's going to be something of a bedroom/living space sooner than we expected. Our current bedrooms are on the complete opposite side of the house...you can barely even hear yelling from there to the garage. The nice thing is, the only thing we have to share is our kitchen.  Outside of that, my mom & dad can be pretty independent if they choose to be...or if we make them.  haha.  And the other perk - they are going to work on fixing that part of the house up while they stay...which wasn't something we were going to be able to do anytime soon.  

All in all, it isn't an ideal situation.  But, I think it may be a good thing for awhile.  We'll be able to get some things done at the house.  We'll have help with our utilities for awhile.  Dad won't have to drive an hour to work anymore.  Mom will be able to be a bit more involved now that they are only 10 minutes from the church.  Once Baby Girl comes I'll have all the help I need.  And someday they will move out.  They just have to find their own place.  And we are doing all we can to help them!  ;)

For some, I suppose this is just insanity.  But we both have a really great relationship with my parents.  We spend quite a bit of time with them anyways.  And I'm not dreading it as much as a lot of people would or as much as what my parents think I am.  Though I'm certainly going to give them a hard time!  I'm really just excited that they will be closer and grateful Baby Girl's grandparents won't be an hour away.

But today is a hard day, as it is the last day I will spend in my childhood home.  The guys were blowing insulation above our garage so we decided it was best for me to be elsewhere.  So up home I went.  It does make me a little teary.  I have SO many memories and it makes my heart a little sad that my kids won't grow up around here like I had always envisioned.  

I look at the woods behind the house and can picture the fort we had in the rocks and mountain laurel.  I see my brother and I smashing berries and pretending to be Indians by putting the purple goo on our faces and running around with sharp sticks.

I've always felt at home in the woods.  I will genuinely miss our beautiful trees...even the ones I got stuck in.

I gaze over the front lawn and think of the hundred times we rolled down that hill in a refrigerator box.  Or the dozens of sled riding parties we had.  Or about sled riding on the back hill...which was even more of an adventure...especially when adults end up with broken appendages.  ;)

Beautiful front yard isn't it??  I'll even miss mowing this crazy bank.  ;)

I think about the countless church picnics and birthday parties we had and the hay rides around the property.  And I can still see two teenage boys dancing on the giant picnic table on our back porch to show off to a bunch of girls.  One may or may not have been my husband.  Though, to be fair, I was not interested at all at that point in our life.  haha.  ;)  That same back porch is where I learned to get over my fear of storms as we sat and watched the thunder and lightning roll through the hills - something I miss even now.

Looks so empty without the extra large picnic table that is now sitting at our place...

There were the grapevines we swung off of in the back field.  And our redneck shooting range where I learned to shoot my hand gun.   And of course there is the creek that was way at the edge of the property line.  I was always too scared to go down without my brother - the woods were thick and it was far from the house.  But we had quite a few adventures down there - including running from what I'm positive wasn't actually a bear - though we were sure it was at the time.

Wish you all could see this in the fall!

Seriously breath taking.  *sigh*

Is it crazy that I'll even miss making hay?  Or the fact that the radio was always on in the barn??  It is the little things isn't it?

I can just see our clothes flapping in the breeze.  :)

And the times we spent climbing through the piles of hay....even though we weren't supposed to!  ;)

But these memories will last with or without a house.  It is just a place.  The people are what made it a home.  Now I will have them all close.  And someday soon (I hope), my parents will have a new place where my kids will make their own memories.  

My brother is actually coming home too!  Which is an answer to prayer.  He has been stuck in Japan for awhile, which is a whole story in itself.  But after not seeing him for a year, he will permanently be home in just a month!  But we also have to squeeze him in somewhere for at least a short time.  haha.  Going to be quite the adventure over the next couple of months!  But God is good and He has a plan.  Just anxious to see what that might be...  

To the beginning of a new journey!