Sometimes Dreams Come True...and miracles do happen

 Some of you may have heard by now, but I am guessing most of you have not.

 It became official this afternoon. 

I want to welcome you to our farm and future home. Yes, you read that right. 

We are the new owners of 20 acres of land just three miles down the road. 

There is no house, no barn, no fence, just rows and rows of soybeans planted by the farmer who is leasing the land. 

The story of how we came to this place is a long one. So grab a cup of tea and make yourself comfortable. I promise it's good. :) 

We we first got married we talked of owning land. Just something big enough to grow a nice garden. We were living in an apartment in Illinois and had only been married 6 months. That fall we began our canning journey and made applesauce. We knew nothing about food additives, or GMO's or any of those things that are so common to talk over now. 

All we knew was the satisfaction of hard work and the taste of good food. 

Fast forward 18 months. We purchased our first house on one acre. It was a cute little Sears home with 4 bedrooms and 1 bath on the second floor. That spring we planted a large garden and grew peas, beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers, and a few other things. We now had two babies and I made them fresh baby food from the garden and froze and canned what I could. 

We talked of adding fruit trees.

Fast forward another two years and add another baby. We took a job transfer to Pennsylvania and purchased a house with 3/4 of an acre as that was all that we could afford. That spring we planted our garden with beans, tomatoes, and peppers. 

We added pressure canning to our list and another baby. 

Fast forward another three years and my husband lost his job during a buyout. By this time we had added those fruit trees and wished we had more land for animals. My husband took a job in New Jersey and began a daily commute of three hours. The job came with an amazing salary, a very large bonus, and a commuter stipend. We looked at buying a house there, even put in an offer on one. Thankfully that fell through and he kept commuting.

 We poured every penny we could into the mortgage. The job turned sour quickly and he began applying to other jobs in six different states. Our goal was land and we knew we couldn't afford anything here. We heard nothing for two very long years. Then he was hired on at a company just fifteen minutes from our house in Pennsylvania. We had come full circle. 

We planted grapes and a fig tree. 

We still dreamed of animals. 

Fast forward another year. My neighbor was downsizing and looking for a home. One day she called me to look at a place on Realtor.com. In the process of looking  I came across a listing for a piece of land. A foreclosure just 3 and a half miles down the road. It should never come up in the feed, the price was out of the range of the search parameters I had put in. I mentioned it to her and then thought nothing of it. But dreams don't die, they may get buried or set aside, but they never go away.

We still dreamed of land.

 I mentioned it to David about a week later in a tongue and cheek manner. We drove by it the next day. We kept thinking about it and made an appointment to meet with a Realtor. The land was perfect.

David began the process of the financing, which can be tricky when dealing with land and a foreclosure. There has not been one glitch in the whole process everything has gone smoothly. We closed on the land this afternoon. 

 We now dream of a farm.
We dream of a farmhouse with a root cellar and walk in pantry.
We dream of a barn and animals and fences.
We dream of bees, an orchard, and gardens.
We've come a long way in 14 years. 

Now for the best part. The ONLY reason we could ever afford to buy was because of the job my husband had in New Jersey. Because of that awful, painful, terrible, experience we had almost paid our mortgage off, allowing us to have money to buy the land we had dreamed of for so many years.

 Land that is truly on the outskirts of town. 

God is good! 

Looking toward the road.

So, I welcome you to the future home of Shining Stars Farm.

 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

Philippians 2:14-16