This story has come up several times in the last week or so: with relatives and friends in town for my brother's wedding, meeting the parents of Michael's new girl friend, plus talking with our neighbors who see God's hand in their own move. It's been a privilege to share our moving-to-the-farm story with all of these people. It's one of those times when you can't help but see God at work. It's even more meaningful when it's YOUR life and you experience Him personally.
This is how I described the mental picture when our first house was finally ours: Imagine that you sit down under an apple tree loaded with the most beautiful, ripe apples possible. You eye them and think about how to get one of them, but (on your own), they are just out of reach. After trying everything you can think of, you give up, because your own efforts to get what you want are falling short. Then, the biggest and best one drops neatly right into your lap--a true blessing from God! 17 years ago, that was my conviction about where God wanted us to be--in a small neighborhood in Palatine, a mix of old houses and new, original owners and new families.
Years later in 2009, Jeff and I first started entertaining the idea of a home in the country. That started the real estate search, the wild-goose chase, the "adventure" as our real estate agent Pat used to call it. For a year, she'd call me when there was a new listing that we might want to see, or I'd call her (I had numerous internet searches going on--it was just a little bit crazy.) She was always on top of what was current. When I saw a listing for a beautiful old brick farmhouse on 20 acres in Belvidere (too far away, and I knew it even then), Pat's response was "Well, let's go on an adventure!"
I pestered her with numerous e-mails, she helped me sort through our family-thoughts as they formed into a real plan. She and her husband had been in a similar situation when they moved from Chicago suburbia all the way out to Harvard, and knew what I was going through as I worked through my fears of uprooting our family for something that might just be a dream.
One night in the summer of 2010, I was feeling frustrated with the whole search process. In looking at houses in Palatine years back, we had actually stopped looking--out of the same sense of frustration, only to have the perfect house "fall into our lap" a short time later. When we gave the search up to God then and stopped trying to influence it on our own, that's when the perfect house was suddenly staring us in the face!
I changed the specifications on one internet search, from 5 acres to "2 or more acres". The next morning, this property, with barely 2 acres, was the first possibility to pop up--newly listed, bank-owned. I'd seen the listing before, back when it was listed at over $400,000, and quickly passed it by at that point.
I called Pat, and she was busy all day. That should have been that, but by noon, Jeremy and I were in the car, heading towards the address of this property, with no plans of being able to see the inside of the house. After peeking in a few windows, I had to call Pat.
"Pat, you'll never guess where we are", I said. She knew immediately. "You're at that farmhouse, aren't you! I can be there in 15 minutes!"
She took us into the kitchen first, and my comment was "Pat, I don't need to see any more of the house. This is the one". She knew before I even said it. Everything about this house combined only the best of all that we had seen in so many old or rundown houses over the past year. Jeremy had fun exploring, while Pat and I oohed and aahed about every feature of the rest of the house, barn, garage, yard..... She had the same "eye" as I tend to have: You see how things are, but in your mind, you are also seeing how they could be.
By the time we'd finished examining and exploring every inch of the place, I was ready to sign papers to make an offer. But....it only seemed right that Jeff have a chance to take a look! Pat took us back to her office. We did as much preliminary paperwork as we could without Jeff there to sign things (with Jeff's permission, of course). She promised to meet us back at the farm house after dinner. Jeff left work early, got Michael from school, and headed out for the hour-long drive to get to the farm.
I think that Jeff liked the place. It's hard to remember, I was so excited. I think he asked me "Is this the house that you really want?" in the course of the conversation. It felt like he was offering me a Christmas present---"this is what we'll do if you think it's the right one." He had seen some of the run-down or out-dated places that Pat and I plowed through in the course of that year. This was gorgeous, beautiful, peaceful, and the buildings were in great shape, even though the once-landscaped yard needed a huge amount of work.
We signed the papers in the kitchen of what we hoped would eventually become our house. Pat talked us through what to offer, and we decided that we'd offer only what the asking price was: $185,000--a very low, unheard of amount for a gorgeous property (which, in my mind's eye, had limitless possibilities)
Jeff gathered the 4 of us in the driveway and prayed for God's guidance, for His blessing, and for our own patience as we waited to see if we would own this beautiful property. Pat had told us that it could become a bidding war, because of the low asking price. I felt a sense of peace, expecting that God had led us here after a year of searching, and somehow feeling that this was "our" farm already.
I don't think it was more than a day or two when Pat called to tell us that a higher offer had been accepted. It was "substantially" higher than ours. We were all disappointed, and a bit stunned. We felt like we needed to sit back and take a little break from looking at any other properties, because none could compare with the Woodstock farm. In the back of my mind, the house on Greenwood Road was still "ours"--maybe God telling me to be patient, maybe my own stubbornness not to let it go.
Just another day or two, and Pat called, and said in kind of sing-song cheerful voice, "Laura.....You got the house!". I didn't immediately know what she was talking about. Turns out, she was at a volleyball match between rival real estate offices. She'd been talking to the agent of the people whose offer had been accepted, and they'd unexpectedly walked away from it. Pat knew all the details that made it possible for us to make the offer that would buy the house.
I don't know the technicalities, or if the listing even officially went back on the market, but by that weekend, my sister Karen and her family, Pat, and our family were at the farm again. It was maybe a week and a half after we'd first seen it. This time, we brought the check for the earnest money. Karen's family loved the house like we did. Jeremy and his twin cousin Sonya had a great time checking out everything, dancing crazily in the barn, running through the overgrown back acre.....
By the end of August 2010, the property was "ours", but with the sense that it wasn't truly ours, but that God meant for us to share it with church, friends, family, youth group, whatever He put on our hearts over the coming years.
We had a LOT of work ahead of us, but it brought a sense of excitement that had been missing for quite a few years as we struggled to keep up with life in suburbia. Having prayed in the driveway before leaving the farm that first time, it was as though God had said "I'm pleased that you've honored Me. Enjoy this gift in the years that I have planned for you to care for it." ;) We had just about given up the search after a year of looking, and, once again, God took over when we threw up our hands in dismay and helplessness.
Back to the imaginary apple tree: 17 years after God blessed us with the house in Palatine where most of our children spent a good part of their childhoods, an even bigger, more beautiful "apple" dropped down into our laps, a true blessing from God.
And here we are.....
Laura.
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