Filed under: life
Last week I was taking my nightly walk when my thoughts meandered toward our house still being for sale, and how I had a lot of internal conflict over this. I had been sensing that we were to stay put – something neither my wife or I want to do. It’s not that we don’t like our neighborhood or the little village we live in… “on paper” it’s frig’n utopia, but in reality it’s kinda boring. The pulse of the village is in the schools, and if you’re not plugged into the schools, you are not really part of the community. School is several years away for us, so it’s weird.
For instance: We sat and ate ice cream with a family that had a very young toddler like our son, and they also had a newborn. The first part of our conversation could have been summed up by asking each other, “What you YOU doing living HERE?!” It’s just so odd to see a young family with toddlers and newborns here. I can count on 1 hand the number of times I’ve seen a young family in this demographic, actually.
Anyway, that underscores why staying put just seemed so bizarre of a thought. Yet this thought kept on me, and I believe it to be a pestering of the Holy Spirit. Why, I have no idea. I just know that this is what I felt.
Then I went to lunch with a friend on Friday, and he began to tell me things that at times literally echoed my thoughts from the past week. I hadn’t told him any of my thoughts – we don’t talk much anymore. On the drive home I prayed. I gave nod to the fact that I knew what I had heard, but asked God that if this was really the case, I’d need him to change my wife’s mind because she had become quite militant about getting out of our current home.
We then went to an in-between church on Saturday night, and on the drive home she spoke of how something in the message had spoke directly to her, and she was comfortable with taking the For Sale sign out of the yard that night. I can’t underscore how big a turnaround this was for her. So that’s what we did, and the sign is now out of our yard. Told the realtor our plans, and he’s sending the paperwork to cancel the contract tomorrow.
On the flip side of this happening is uncertainty. I have no idea what is going on. I do know that we’ve met and made friends with one other family here, and they are transplants, too, from Indiana. It’s an odd place to be.
Today was Father’s Day. My second time celebrating it, and this was a lot of fun. Garrett went to the zoo for the first time, saw some cool stuff, and we learned that he’s really into underwater creatures. Really, though, at a zoo it’s the underwater creatures that give you the most bang-for-buck. The other animals have long gone insane, literally. There’s a polar bear that has been swimming the same lap for the several years I’ve been going to this zoo. I can take zoos in short time periods with lots of time between visits. It’s like going to a prison, really. Such small spaces for those animals. I always leave depressed, but today I have a new perspective. But the time with my boy today was well worth it. Glad he got to see all those animals. We then took a long nap together. It started by him putting his foot on my face (what we call “kicker love”), and I had a case of the tired giggles. It’s such a treat to laugh with him – the same stuff makes us laugh, and sometimes my wife doesn’t get what’s funny. I love it.
Tomorrow we drive to Detroit for a quick trip. Doc appointment for my wife, and hopefully we get a good prognosis for her, as she is really gaining a ton of strength in her reconstructed leg.
