At what point in your adult life do you say “Yup! This is it for us! THIS is where we’re planting our roots!”? At what point do you just feel content and happy with where you are living, raising a family, and creating relationships that will last a lifetime?
I never had this moment. Maybe it’s the adventurer in me, but I never thought “THIS is HOME”. I always thought there might be something better, something more fun, or something more beautiful out there if we kept looking for it. The thought of settling down honestly scared me. If you know me, you know that I LOVE traditions. I love all things family, I love having parties, I love socializing, and I knew I wanted all those things in our forever hometown. Sadly, when we moved to my husbands hometown, I didn’t find that. I found myself on the outside looking in, and boy did it throw me for a loop. I was an outsider coming in on a VERY tight knit community. I was an outsider in a predominately LDS community.
I felt like an outsider in literally EVERY aspect of life when it came to this little town.
We had talked and talked on and off about where we wanted to end up. Did we want to be in the Valley closer to our siblings? Did we want to move where I grew up and raise out kids in the mountains? Did we want to road trip for a year and see what this country had to offer? We listed our house for sale and hoped for the best. I was praying so desperately for an escape from this town. I knew I needed it. I would literally cry myself to sleep because I NEEDED to leave. I BEGGED God for an answer. And he gave it to me.
He gave me an unsold house. And along with that, he gave me peace. He gave me joy and he gave me purpose and he gave me a new outlook on life. Funny how all of that can come from an unsold house. I woke up one day and I could fully and whole heartedly say “THIS is HOME”. This place is where we want to raise our kids, where we want to grow our family, and where we want to put up with each other forever.
This town has brought us a lot of happy times and a few not so happy times. We fought like hell for our marriage in this town, we grew our family in this town, we lost a baby living in this town, and ultimately…we fell so much in love with each other and our life in this town. We found friends in this town and we found a school we LOVE in this town. We found OUR home. There are no towns like this town of ours. Where people rally together when someone needs it, when strangers bring you dinner for a week straight because you need it, when someone needs a liver transplant and the first question asked is “where can I get tested to be a donor?”, when you’re out of cream cheese for a recipe and your friend has their son ride his bike to your house to drop some off to you…..and most of all, there are no towns that feel like HOME, except this one.
This windy, no stoplight, middle of no where town.
We’ve been fixing up our house for almost 4 years now, and I am so happy to finally call it our HOME. Home where traditions will be made. Home where holidays will be held. Home where our kids will grow up.
Here’s to the next 50 years here, babe! We did it. We found home.
