While I basically hate to move - I also was bad at saying "no" - in fact one home was bought while I was in the jungle! Even though we rationalized and justified each and every move - God blessed us....with neighbors. Every single one of our homes gave us incredible neighbors who turned into friends. We lived in Gresham and all those neighbor gals were pregnant and new to Tyler along with me and we formed a babysitting co-op and loved and learned along with each other - I remember one afternoon going out to get the mail and due to morning sickness found myself throwing up at the mailbox but because everyone else's wife was pregnant and prone to the same embarrassing situation - the guys coming home from work just honked and waved as I heaved and slunk into the house.
The home on 3rd and Chilton was where we lived the most years and where our kids have most of their memories - it's where we met neighbors who became our very friends. I pictured Katie getting married one day in the yard...but then we moved to Belmead Lane. We were just a few streets over and I met a wonderful group of older women who enveloped me and kept touch with each other vicariously through me which was fun & very interesting-there's probably a book in the making on those experiences. Because we didn't move that far, we just added the 3rd and Chilton neighbors to the bunch on Belmead and kept on building the friendships.
Then we had an interesting God-incident...we never would have dreamed but happened anyway involving the adoption of a little deaf and mute boy in Guatemala (this story will someday be told more in depth) but the point was we really felt we needed to leave the home on Belmead that had a pool and go to the other end of town to "The Woods" that had lots of little kids. Fine with me actually because the Belmead home (bought while I was mission tripping in Belize) wasn't my favorite and I had never had a new home so I was looking foward to that experience. Adoption did not go through as planned and new homes have stuff falling apart just like old homes but we met some wonderful neighbors - the neighborhood was diverse and everyone walked just like in the Azalea District - we had a great front porch and we made some wonderful young neighbors who turned into friends.
Two years later - Adam was leaving for college in Colorado and Tom said"let's move to the lake" - I said "ok but not till this house sells" thinking whatever - this will take some time....unbelievably the house sold in 3 days - we bought an 800 square foot lakehouse, moved all our stuff into two storage rooms and took our last child to college. Sept 10 th we came back home and woke up Sept 11 and thought wow maybe this was a good idea because the sky is falling. We started meeting neighbors and encouraging our friends to buy at the lake and become our neighbors!
The sky didn't fall. We made plans to build. The bids for the simple plans were outrageous and I found myself longing to be back on Chilton. Tom said it was a little "Father of the Bride-ish" but due to my flailing on the bed and crying - was willing to humble himself and grovel to beg the old home on Chilton owners to sell back to us - I mean Katie was getting married in three months and I wanted us to have a home! We couldn't get the old house back but God must have been waiting to hear me say "Chilton" because that same week a home went on the market at 2312 Chilton and we were the first to see it and wrote a contract before we left the driveway! And once again God has blessed us and surrounded us with great neighbors - some were friends we already knew and the neighbors we didn't know have quickly became precious friends.
We've lived in our current home now for 5 years - and I made a box in the garage that I told Tom is the only way I am leaving this house. He still throws up the idea every once in awhile of downsizing to a condo and getting apartments in the places where our children live - I smile and let him ramble...maybe I should have tried that technique in the beginning! But then we wouldn't have all the friends that we have now because of those moves into all those neighborhoods.
And new neighbors are moving in! We just welcomed a sweet young family that moved in across the street - Mike & Brandy Williams (he's a new radiologist in Tyler, she's a stay-at-home mom and they both love running). They have two precious children Bella (3) and Beau (1). Now our grandson Will has buddies to play with when he comes to town and we can hopefully be to the Williams family what the Bubby & Dorothy Gordon and Florence & Marcus Strum were to our children (a weird stage huh? but wonderful!)
Williams Family - we are so glad you moved to Tyler and to our neighborhood! We know you will soon have lots of friends and - just like us - a lot of them will be your neighbors too!
Bella "making tea"......................Beau showing off his teeth
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