We have the keys! And we are loopy excited out of our minds.

But oh. my. goodness. All those papers we had to sign! Must have been at least 80 (I am so not kidding.) The neat thing was that there at the county courthouse we sat in a wing of the huge deeds room at tables along with other couples who were buying houses. I enjoyed that part--I was as excited for all of them as I was for us.

But the paperwork! And the lawyers.... sheesh. When we bought our first house in New York 15 years ago, we had 'just' two real estate lawyers present--the one representing us and the one representing the seller. Yesterday there were three--our real estate lawyer and a bank lawyer representing us, and a bank lawyer representing the sellers. And unfortunately the sale didn't go on the record yesterday because neither of the bank lawyers had even heard of a 13-year loan (and one of them was so ancient, the kind of lawyer who looks like he came with the county building when it was built eons ago). :) So some of the paperwork had to be tweaked, that required extra time and phone calls, and the window closed (literally), which made the sellers' bank lawyer quite unhappy for reasons I never did understand. In fact, I only understood a quarter of the jargon and the paperwork, just enough to get that New York state makes buying a house as complicated as it possibly can (Tom and I tried not to snicker over some of the papers we signed. The reasons for some were laughable.)

At one point, one of the lawyers, used some big, long words with the jist that Tom and I might have to wait until Monday to take possession of the house. Immediately I thought, "Oh! Just try to keep us from getting the keys today! Good luck with keeping my new old house and me apart over the weekend, especially because of typographical errors totally not our fault."

But it all worked out, for us, anyway, and we have the keys and we drove through the countryside to our old farmhouse, rejoicing. And this weekend we will be camping-out there inside the house and cleaning, laying shelf paper (I found two rolls of wallpaper upstairs--how fun!-- which I'll use), unpacking groceries and working out in the yard where the grass is getting tall so very fast.

So all this is to say my blog posts will most likely be few and far between for a couple weeks. Bear with me and keep checking back. I'd hate to lose any of you at this incredible time of my life... your kind, encouraging words have made this whole experience more special.


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Thanks for all your interesting comments to my last two posts!

And then there are wonderful days like this one.

Tom and I were due, at noon, to meet our real estate lady for a final inspection out at our new house. I woke him up and said, "Hey! How about if we get out to the house early, way before Cher does, so we can walk through the places in the barn which we haven't even seen yet. And we can walk out a ways on the property, too."

Tom thought that a good idea. So we drove out there beneath the most blue skies and pulled into the gravel driveway of this soon-to-be-ours house and hardly before Tom shut off the engine I'd leaped outside of the car and began my own inspection. 

I ran to the huge garden and looked it (and its weeds) over. I gazed to my left and told Tom (who'd finally caught up), to look! And there was a second orchard which we'd not even seen before because the trees are all babies. But they are trees (Update: grape vines.).

Then we examined the barn board by board, including the chicken coop which we never did see before and a room off of it which will be a perfect place to lock-up Tom's tools until we enclose the carport on the side of the barn. We found a bird nest in the rafters complete with baby robins and we discovered lots of wood pieces which we'll be able to burn when we get a woodstove.

Then we walked around our green, pretty property and noted trees and tall grasses which need to be mowed. And beyond a grove of small trees I pictured a picnic place. Tom (the extreme nature lover) kept pointing out all the birds in the trees, but I was like, "Yeah, yeah birds. I know. We can see those anywhere. But can you believe all the trees there are back here?" 

The sense of discovery, the delight of all outdoors, well, we both felt like children again.

Then Tom and I discovered that the house was unlocked and though he was all nervous about our actually going inside, I burst right in, laughed at his nervousness and breezed through all the sunny rooms and talked to myself, too, as I checked details I'd forgotten to check before. Eventually, I talked Tom into the house ("What is anyone gonna do? Sue us for walking into this empty, unlocked house which is more ours at this moment than the previous owners?"). 

So I checked out all the rooms again, with Tom this time, then we went and picked up hamburgers down the street at the little everything-in-one-place corner market. We brought back the burgers and sat in the car before the barn (not having any insect repellent to ward off insects) and dreamed and planned some more.

Oh, we have two-hundred plans for Healing Acres. And on Friday afternoon we will begin the doing of those plans.

I simply cannot wait.



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When Dreams Are a Long Time Coming

So on Tuesday I finally was able to watch (thank-you, Netflix) four episodes from the final season of Road to Avonlea. I'd missed that 7th season when it began back in the 1990's.

When the first season of Road to Avonlea began, Tom,Naomi and I lived in the middle of the Nevada desert, and well, I've told you myriad times already what that was like.Oh dear.

But Avonlea! Each week that was my paradise. I'd sit before the screen, close, to absorb the gorgeous Canadian fields, pastures and forests as well as the Victorian homes, orchards and the ocean. And I can't even explain the absolute yearning which would throb within my head and heart for all of it. 

Sigh.

But this past Tuesday the most remarkable thing happened. While I watched an episode of Road to Avonlea and saw various characters stroll across a pasture with an autumnal-laced forest in the background, I gasped. They might just as well have been walking along Tom's and my future piece of property. The green pasture, the tall woods--we have that! And I thought, "Oh my goodness! We will have a piece of Avonlea right in our own backyard."

And why am I writing this? To encourage those of you who have dreams that they, also, can come to pass if only you are willing to wait, work and hope a little longer. And to never stop believing for Someday.



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One more thing-- do you remember how I wrote that I hope each of you have named your home? Well, I believe I've already found the name for our future place in the country.

I want it to be called Healing Acres.

Why? Because we'd love it to be a getaway place for anyone in need of spiritual, mental or emotional healing. And I'm not sure you'd agree, but I believe that's just about each of us. 

This world so quickly changes and we're bombarded with the news of what's going wrong every single day. Our neighborhoods are changing, often not for the good, and we're being squeezed financially and the temptation to latch onto all sorts of stresses is always there--

So what Tom and I want is to share this God-given gift of four peaceful acres with anyone who needs a place simply to sit with God awhile so they can remember what matters. And what does not. And Who matters most of all.


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P.S. I realized this week that Road to Avonlea is my favorite tv series of all time (and trust me, that is really saying something, being an original member of the first real tv generation). 

I would love to know which show you consider to be your favorite! Please let me know in my comment box (the variety will probably be incredible) and if you've named your home I'd love to hear about that, also!


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