We moved in June of 2023 to small town, East Texas. My husband graciously became a Texan a few years prior by way of the Upper Pensiula of Michigan where we met, Mississippi, and his birth place of Ohio. While moving was not new to him- I left 37 years of deep roots behind.
Let me back up some. Before Love built a home on our land- it was writing a story.
While waiting on the Lord for children- we spent some time praying about a move to East Texas. We knew we wanted a space of our own to raise our family. After my husband was offered to transfer his job to East Texas we began narrowing our search. We started exploring and fell in love with the woods, the country life, the spaces, and the salt of the earth people.
Many of the properties we looked at required a huge remodeling endeavor, while some had generations of things littering the land, and dirt roads with pot holes as wide as my CRV.
We needed something liveable and on a one income budget, especially after finding out we were going to have a son!
We had almost set our search aside when my husband found one more property. I was seven months pregnant. The land was beautiful with towering trees, but on it sat a not so quaint house. The video the realtor sent showed a lot of work. My dad remodels for a living and told us if we did this house ourselves we would probably never be done remodeling it. I had no interest in going to see it, we had plenty to do to get ready for our son. But I felt God telling me to listen to my husband on this.
So we went the next day.
The videos didn’t do it justice, neither did the description in the listing, “just needs your finishing touches.”
The drab brown house had been halted in its renovations, leaving it in varying stages of its remodel. The original cabin had over 2000 sq. feet added, to a long oddly designed floor plan. The small kitchen sat at one end of the house with the huge main living space at the far end. In the living room was a huge doorway to an unfinished “bathroom.” There were stairs in another doorway leading to a loft you couldn’t quite stand up in. The balcony had been ripped off and you could see the light through the framed in window. We pulled up a piece of plywood to inspect and found a literal hole in the floor. It was a mixture of dreams started and things already falling apart. Oak flooring lay across the floor with shiny tin ceilings, new ceiling fans and there sat the brand new HVAC still wrapped in the living room. But its fixings didn’t hide its bad bones- the patched seam in the roof, the pier and beam foundation (which had literal shims of wood between layers), the crazy plumbing, no central heat/AC and uncertain wiring. The breaker panel sat in a closet next to a window closed in by the remodel.
No one wanted to touch it.
On the way there, God had planted the idea of tearing it down and starting new.
Did people do such a thing? (In the end- it would be astronomically cheaper.)
It seemed like a lot. We walked away after seeing it, unsure.
But the sellers dropped the price that following Monday. We decided to take a step of faith-perhaps this was an unconventional way of obtaining a beautiful piece of property. Even without the house-the 32 acres, aquifer well, electric line, septic, road, fencing, clearing, and second entrance made it worth the price.
We approached our financing about wanting to make an offer. After many months of research and discussions we thought we were on the same page. In the last hour, we found out the timing wouldn’t work- we would have to sell our home right then to qualify.
So we walked away.
Sometimes God really wants you to trust Him and then simply step back. Let Him work.
The same day we walked away- an unconventional means of financing was brought to us that could only be described as God. We felt confident in at least making an offer, and letting Him confirm. So we did. It turns out we beat an investor, got a credit for a bad septic, and gained 32 acres that was becoming very spiritually significant to us.
The house and property sat for over a year as we became first time parents.
When we came out of the blessed fog of no sleep, we placed our suburban house on the market, sold it and found a rent house within two weeks of closing. It was in a town nearby (also another God provision!) where He situated us perfectly, to find a church down the road which led to us finding a church family, and the beginning roots of our community.
In the process of getting to know our new neighbors in the country we found our amazing builder, an artichect who hadn’t changed his prices since the 80s and a personal bank that was willing to work with our unconventional plan.
To save money our builder suggested burning the old house down as a training exercise for our local fire dept.
So we burned the old house down.
Our kind neighbors had helped strip anything of value from the home, giving a lot of it to them. They even cut down trees that were necessary for safety.
I did save that squeaky screen door.
Our land was ours free and clear from the sale of our suburban home. We signed our loan to build in November.
In January our builder ran into problems finding a foundation guy. He got the name of someone at a hardware store. Turns out he was an associate pastor.
We were building our house on the Rock.
The framing was done by just a few guys. We watched as walls went up and wrote Scriptures on them as a testament to the fact that this place belonged to God. Of all the places God could have brought us, we were realizing this was a calling and a gift. How else can you explain how we ended up among some of the most giving people? All mostly retired and wise to the country life neighbors- a PA, two other nurses, three master gardeners, a school teacher, a former butcher knowledgeable about herbs, and yes God even spoke to my missions loving heart. Down the road from us is a retired, widowed missionary- whose house was built by one of our neighbors just for him!
We moved in on our would have been baby’s due date, God showing us that he gives new beginnings. It’s been an adjustment to country life (I killed 18 scorpions in the house in the first two weeks!) and we have a lot to learn. But we are humbled to be caretakers of this place. Our neighbors welcomed us with a BBQ, and our church family prayed over our home- a blessing recently.
We have much work ahead of us- a lifetime of it. But it is good work- the taming of land, unveiling the hidden beauty of a lost Eden, and setting down new roots in a place where God is opening doors for ministry, hospitality, and much growth.
We very much miss our friends and family we moved away from, more than we can say. Obedience always has a cost. (It cost Jesus his life). But we are thankful for this calling, and I am thankful for a God who provides though my husband- to enable me to be home for now with our young son. And you better believe he was born for the country life!
Movement in a Mercurial World 