Sunday Sentiments

Earlier this week, I was hunting for a photo in one of my old Facebook albums. I never did find it, but what I did find in my search was even better. It's a story I am pretty sure I never told here on the blog, but I'm going to tell it today.

This first little fact, I believe I have mentioned in passing, but it ties in with the story, so I'll mention it again. When Ryan and I were first married, he owned an acre of land in the country that he planned to build on someday. A couple of years into our marriage, we decided to get serious about building our home on that land, and we started looking at potential floor plans. 

Spoiler alert: that house never happened. Unfortunately, between the time Ryan bought the land and when we started considering a build, zoning laws changed in the county, and the land was no longer large enough to build on. We had to sell it, since we couldn't build on it.

But before we learned about that, we looked around at floor plans. We found one we especially loved and learned there was a model home about an hour from our house that we could tour! I remember that day quite vividly. We were in the middle of a season so busy that I literally couldn't catch my breath, so we took a day one weekend to just be. And at the end of that day, we decided we would go look at this model home and perhaps the dream of our someday-house would encourage our weary hearts. 

We went. We took a bunch of pictures. We ran around like silly kids on Christmas. And then apparently, I came home and made a private Facebook album to send to my sisters and a handful of friends so they could see our dreams in picture form. 

I stumbled across that album in my picture hunt this week, and my jaw flopped right down to the carpet. You see, when we had to sell that land, we gave up on the dream of ever having our own new home. And as I told you when I first told you about this house we're in now, God restored that lost dream. I knew that. I just hadn't remembered how closely this home of our resembled that house we toured back in 2014!

Granted, the homes were built 10 or more years apart, so the colors, materials, and decor don't exactly match. But I think you'll see what I mean.

The dining room of the model home: 

And our house:

The kitchen of the model home:

And our house:

The living room of the model home:

And our house:

The bedroom in the model home that would have been our guest room:

And our guest room:

The bedroom in the model home that would have been our home office:

And our home office:

The master in the model home:

And our master:

Is it an exact match? No. Is it enough to remind me that God doesn't ever forget the dreams He places in our hearts? Yes. 

He has given us the home we prayed for - almost down to the actual structure of the house itself. And He has seen and heard the other dreams of our hearts, too. Who knows but what a year (or five) down the road, He will bring another dream to fruition!?

It may be a silly - almost frivolous - example, but it was pivotal to me this week. My God sees my dreams. He cares about them. And He invites me to keep dreaming with Him and to keep trusting Him for His answers in HIS time!