This spring we bought a house in North Carolina.
{This is the house we will live in most of the year, still spending our summers in our little old beach cottage.}
There are so many things I want to share about this house and the beautiful property on which it sits and how it feels like this God-given place.
We do thank God for this place.

In all that we do, may our lives here sing gratitude and bring Him glory. Yet it is hard to come before you and say, “look at this thing the Lord has done.” Because while I want to tell you how humbled I feel that God prepared this place for us, led us here by faith and prayer and family, I also know there are children who love and worship the Lord who live in huts and drink filthy water and whisper prayers on dirt floors and I know the Lord loves those children too.

And yet here we are, in the country, with our very own red barn, and 300 peonies bursting forth in color in the front yard.
And it feels like every inch of this place is my Lord whispering,
“I know you. I know your heart.”
I “hear” Him whispering.
And I know that the Lord has said:
My [daughter], do not forget my teaching,
but keep my commands in your heart,
for they will prolong your life many years
and bring you peace and prosperity.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
We have finally accomplished the goal we set for ourselves when we sold our New Old House in the suburbs. We now own a home in each of our small hometowns, where our children can grow up in close-knit communities, close to all four of their grandparents, and our payments on two houses are significantly less than they were for that one big house we left behind three years ago. Somewhere Dave Ramsey is cheering like William Wallace.
Our Sweet Home Carolina house was built in 1940. Similar to our Michigan cottage, it has lots of character hidden beneath renovations and carpet circa 1970. It has a gracious old Southern charm. It had a carpeted kitchen the size of a postage stamp, some rotten sub-floor and a few dead mice.
WE LOVE IT.
I don’t understand why God has done this thing for us but I know we are not meant to understand and we thank Him and praise Him and work to glorify His holy name.
Friends, we are HOME.



















































