Finding Promise in a Home

 

Two years ago this past Monday, Ryan and I rolled into an unfamiliar driveway, took a deep breath, looked at each other, and moved hesitantly out of the car. We climbed stone steps and knocked on a door. A gentleman appeared at the window, pushed the door open and invited us inside. We stepped into a room so empty that our footsteps echoed on the hardwood.

            We wondered, but didn’t know for sure, if we had just stepped inside our new home.

            And indeed, we had.

            For a full hour, Ryan and I ambled from room to room, looking around, imagining, wondering, dreaming, trying not to dream, trying not to wonder, trying not to imagine.

            This home was a vacation home for the gentleman showing us around that day. He’d purchased it just a few months earlier, hoping it would become the place his whole family chose to gather throughout the year. There were a handful of reasons (personal to him) why it did not work out, and his choice to sell brought him both relief and disappointment, I think.

            When Ryan and I look back on that day, we have so many questions for our 2022 selves. If anything in our whole marriage has ever solidified that we have vision, it was buying this house. I giggled when I opened up my journal from September of 2022 and found my pros and cons list of making this move to the lake. On my “pros” list?

House is mostly updated inside and out. We would probably want to make a few cosmetic changes, but for the most part, it’s done.

Oh Bekah. You are so adorable.

Floors/carpet have all been redone.

            Well, you can’t believe everything you read in a listing.

            We stepped into the house and through the brittle, purple carpet, heavy lace curtains, dark brown paneling, and dated light fixtures, we saw promise. We saw something that could be light and beachy. We saw a little cottage that might not have an open floor plan (that was on the cons list) but sure had a million dollar sunset view.

            So we took a leap of faith. We did something that seemed crazy even to us. We did something that seemed crazy to most of the people around us, and some even said so out loud. But what you all might not have known was that Ryan and I had been praying for years for God to make a way through the impossible for us to live on a lake. We had even tried purchasing a lake cottage while we lived at WillowBridge. We thought it was ours – and then it wasn’t, and we were heartbroken.

            So this little paneling-and-brittle-carpet-lined house on a tiny lake was a multi-year answer to prayer. I fully believe God gave us the vision to see what it could become, because when I look back at the before pictures, I struggle to see what we’ve turned it into – and I have the after pictures!

            It didn’t become ours until October, but it’s been two full years since we saw it for the first time, with all its beautiful potential. We saw hope in this house, and hope is what it has provided for us.

            We did most of the work on it together – in evenings and on weekends. Friends pitched in to help as they were able. We did hire help with a couple of projects, but the bulk of it fell to us, and that makes the result sweeter, I think.

            I love every decision we’ve made. I haven’t regretted a single paint color, doorknob, curtain, or window covering. I love the small handful of projects we’ve tackled since moving in. Little by little we’re working to make it even better.

            Home is a process. There may be before and after pictures of projects, but with home, it’s always changing. It’s always becoming, just like we are.

            What a gift to have enjoyed life here for the last two years. Here is a glimpse of just some of the promise we’ve found in this answer to prayer!