Thank God I'm a (converted) Country Girl

Those of you who knew me growing up are probably just as shocked as I am that I am THRILLED over the fact that as of last night at 5pm, hubby and I are now the proud owners of 94 acres of farm and woodland! Despite the fact I always said I wanted to marry a city-rancher kinda guy, I grew up in the middle of a subdivision in Colorado and never imagined myself actually living on 94 acres with no neighbors, but I'm looking forward to it. Still not sure I'll really get into the whole feeding the cows early every morning, but that's what my hubs is for; I'll just make sure to have a hearty breakfast ready for him when he's done.

This land really is an awesome piece because when you're on it you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, yet it's only 5 minutes from where we live now which is smack dab in the middle of a Northeastern "bedroom" community. I think we just bought the last piece of land in town...most residents don't even know there still is farmland in town.

It's nerve-wrecking and exciting at the same time. It's scary not knowing exactly where the money for a third monthly mortgage will come from (until we sell off our "flip" house we bought a couple years ago and we convert the other mortgage back to hubs parents), but we prayed over this land numerous times asking the Lord to provide if it'd be His will for us to own it. He's come through so far and I'm sure He'll continue to do so.

We have our application in the works for farmland preservation and once that comes through it should be paid in full in a little over a year. What an awesome opportunity for our future family and for ministry. Church bonfire anyone?

This weekend is one of our first meetings with the modular home builder we're hoping to use for the "guest" house that we plan to build first. Our hope is to build a 3-stall garage with a 1400-1500 sq. ft 2-bed, 2-bath "ranch" on top. Hubby & I will live there until we can off-load the other two mortgages and then use that money to build our main house. We'd then love to loan out the guest house to family, friends, missionaries, etc. who are looking for an affordable (most likely free) place to stay short-term.

I'm still shocked that I'm wanting to stay living in the state where we reside given it's incredibly high property taxes, but the fact that we're getting plugged into a great church and had this awesome opportunity for a little slice of heaven is changing things...plus it allows hubby to stay in politics (providing he wins his second re-election this November).

Ya, I think I can gladly say, "Thank God I'm a country girl!" 

Bought the Farm (almost)

I think I mentioned briefly that hubby and I are trying to purchase 94 acres of farm, woods and wetlands located around the corner from where he grew up, but connected to the hay fields that we currently hay. This property was bought by a commercial developer who subdivided it into 8 building lots. Hubby & I want to buy it all and put it in farmland preservation and then build a guest house over the garage that we’ll live in while we build the main house. Once the main house is built, we’ll give the guest house to his parents to use when they’re not out travelling and enjoying retirement or loan it out to people like missionaries and stuff who need a free temporary place to stay.

We got the good news a couple weeks ago that the bank approved the financing and we got news this past week that it looks like the investor for the down payment is going to come through. The Lord is good and provides in perfect time! It’s going to be a struggle to pay three mortgages each month until the farmland preservation goes through in about a year, but once we get that, it should completely pay for the 94 acres with enough left over to pretty much pay for the guest house.

Eventually we’d like to sell the other house we purchased a couple years ago, but we have to put the kitchen back in that before that’s likely. We’ve also talked with hubby’s parents about subdividing their 5 acre farm and selling that (the third mortgage we pay each month). In addition we can continue to lease the 94 acres to the farmer who currently raises corn and soybeans on it, or the hunters who hunt deer on it, and we’d use all this money to pay the mortgage until the farmland preservation comes through and/or build the main house.

It’s big dreams right now, but we know if this is where the Lord wants us, He’ll provide in due time.

Here are some pictures from a couple Saturdays ago when hubby & I were out walking the land and praying over it.

I Will Still Love Him

NOTE: I intended to write this post before I just read a friend's announcement on Facebook.

Over the weekend hubby and I watched Facing the Giants again with his parents. This time, their struggle of starting their family really struck me, especially one line spoken by Grant to his wife that basically asked her if the Lord never gives them a baby, would she still love Him? (Him being God).

I know I mentioned on my bucket list for 2010 to "start a family". What I haven't mentioned before is that we've been trying to get pregnant for a year now with no success.

I'm not going to lie. I experience very mixed emotions when I hear about others who are expecting...especially when they weren't wanting to start a family yet, or they got married or started trying after we did, or it's their 2nd or 3rd child, or they're choosing to adopt before they start a biological family.

I've dealt with these emotions when I learned my sister was pregnant with number 2 (whom she conceived while on the pill; same with number 1). I've dealt with these emotions when I learned friends who got married after us are already unexpectedly expecting. I've dealt with these emotions as some of my friends are praising another friend for choosing to adopt before starting a biological family. I've dealt with these emotions as many good friends have had 2nd or 3rd babies before I've been able to get pregant with my 1st. I've dealt with these emotions every time someone asks or jokes that it's about time we had a baby.

On the outside, I try to appear happy for those friends who are expecting because I know deep down inside I really am happy for them. But it's hard. It's very, very hard.

It's hard because I know most people's response is "you can always adopt." Don't get me wrong. Adoption is a great thing and maybe someday it will be a road I walk. But choosing to adopt and having adoption as your only option of how to grow a family are two very different things.

This post is not intended to be a "poor me" post. It's not intended to belittle the joy and excitment of those I know who are expecting. This post is to hopefully explain to some friends why I may not seem overly excited for them. This post is to request prayer that the Lord will bless us with a biological baby, and that if that's not His will that He'll open our hearts to adoption. This post is to say that no matter what, I will still love Him.

Weird Dreams

Do you ever have a dream that is just really random and weird? I do and surprisingly it's often on the nights I sleep the best.

I'll try to share what I remember from last night's dream.

It all started back at ECA (Evangelical Christian Academy for those of you not familiar with this school) in Colorado Springs. Monica from The Homespun Heart was in it because she used to work there. It was summer time and I was in the office to visit my dad who also used to work there. I guess I must have been back in high school again?? I remember thinking how a job like Monica's would be nice because in the dream she had all the time in the world at work to just read blogs and come up with all these neat crafts and bake all these yummy treats.

Then, somehow I ended up being in a bike race that went all across the globe. I was on a team with Chris (who was in my class at ECA) and Melissa (who I worked with here) and we came in first place! However, during the bike race we had to go across this really, really high cobblestone bridge that had low sides. This bridge was about 10 miles long and about 500 feet in the air at its peak. While going over the bridge we were being chased by these bats and I was chomping on a huge wad of bubble gum and blowing bubbles. Somehow I blew 3 bubbles that all attached themselves together and became similar to a helium balloon and they started to lift me and my bike over the edge. I was peddling like the Witched Witch from the West to get back on the bridge before I fell into nothingness.

Next thing I know, I'm suddenly my current age and going out for dinner at Tavern on the Green all by myself. I don't know why I'd be going there for dinner by myself, but supposedly this was a regular occurrence. Because I was only one person, the restaurant didn't want to give me my own table, but instead sat me down next to this other lady who I didn't know, but had the feeling I would know her later. Well, the person they sat me next to in the dream was the lady who married my husband's cousin. And oh yeah, they had cherry chip cookies like the ones I used to get as a kid for free when my mom shopped at King Soopers.

RANDOM. That's all I have to say. Now, for any of you dream interpreters out there, care to venture a guess??? Just kidding. But, I do find it interesting how our dreams combine different things we experienced throughout the day (i.e. I read Monica's blog about her apple pies, I played "Dots" with Chris on Facebook, I read Melissa's blog the other day, the bats came from the snippets of Batman Begins that I saw with hubby), things we've dreamt before (I've had a very similar dream of the bridge and going over the edge of it), and things from our past (i.e. the cookies at King Soopers).