Honey, Pack Your Bags!

As most of you dear readers know, my Daddy passed away unexpectedly in May of 2008. This left my mom on 24 acres of land by herself. Not exactly the scenario you want for your 65 year old Mom. Not only was the property too much work, it was lonely. Plus it took at least 40 minutes to get anywhere, including a decent grocery store.

Since I'm an only child, it just made sense for Mom to move up here where we live. Even though Mom had lived in the Houston area for nearly 45 years, she was willing to leave and come up here to by near me, her favorite son-in-law, and her 3 grandkids. Besides, she hardly saw her friends who lived in town because she was so far out in the country; instead she talked to them on the phone. And since we have a phone and phone service, she could continue to talk to her friends as if she still lived near them!

So Mom moved in with us at the end of August this year. She sold her property (a neighbor bought it; they didn't even use an agent in the transaction -- so orchestrated by God!) and was no longer a Houstonian.

The idea was for her to find a small house on our street (or within a couple of streets) so we'd be close and could easily come over to help with the little things (opening jars, for instance). But the more I thought about it, I wondered if we really wanted to stay in the town we're in. If Mom is going to be buying a house in our town, are we sure we want to stay here? We love our town, but I don't want to get the idea to move in 3 years if Mom's going to make the investment of purchasing a house. Hence a whirlwind of discussion commenced: should we stay? should we move closer to the church that we're already very involved in? do we want our kids to go to school with the kids they go to church with? would it be wiser to stay where we are?

Bottom line: we wanted to be closer to church. Currently it's a 20+ minute drive each way to church. If we only went there once a week, it wouldn't be that bad. But we find ourselves going up there several times a week; on Wednesday mornings, I have to leave 45 minutes early to get to church on time because of work traffic! Plus, if we moved closer, our kids would be going to school with kids they go to church with. And we really like that idea (especially as they grow closer to getting into youth group in junior high).

The next big question: did Mom want to live with us permanently or did she still want to get her own house? To my surprise, she likes living with us. I can't imagine what led her to that conclusion, but she likes it.

The search was then on for a big house that we could all comfortably live in. It wasn't too long after we decided to live together that we found a house. The house. The house we'll now call home.

There are so many reasons why this is a great house. It's big enough. Mom has her own "wing" with her bedroom and her own bathroom. It's on a cul-de-sac. There is a big backyard. The house faces south with hardly any windows on the west side of the house. There's an upstairs living area for the kids. There's a double oven in the kitchen. There's room for the grand piano. There's some good closet storage. There's some amazing moulding in the house. There's hardwood floors. There's a 3 car garage. I could go on and on about why we're crazy about this house!

We close on the house soon but will wait two months or so to move in so that Cade can finish the year at his current school. Honey, pack your bags!