Home Sweet Home

As some may know Matthew and I are currently the owners of two very nice houses, however, we are desperately trying to sell one of them. You may wonder why we made the seemingly sudden and spontaneous decision to buy a new house without having sold the one we currently reside in. Well, the universe works in twisted and miraculous ways. When Matt and I bought our first home we never planned to live in it for much more than 5 years. We looked at it as a starter home. However, in 4 years we have repainted and wallpapered every single room in the house, put new flooring in four rooms, ripped out two walls and a ceiling, planted an entire perennial garden (with the boys so I could compare their growth) and put in a koi pond. We added a "bat cave" complete with a secret entrance for the boys and a workshop for Matt. We have added flavors of character to every nook and cranny of this house whereby we have made it much more than a starter home. It has become a reflection of our family. However, it dawned on me one evening this summer that we would have no room to reflect the expansion of our family in this house. Where on earth were we going to put Poppy once she came home?

As we were nearly finished with our homestudy process I had another realization. Once our paperwork has been sent to China we are not allowed to move without a costly and complicated addendum to our homestudy. Also, I began to wonder how in good conscience, we could disrupt this baby and remove her from everything familiar, only to get her settled in and comfortable in our home and then decide to move, thus uprooting her again from all that has now become familiar. It would not be fair to her and I can only predict horrible interruptions in bonding. I also started to seriously consider what was involved in moving an entire household and how complicated it would be with 2 children and all their stuff much less three!

So with all of this in mind I carefully approached Matt. He did not want to move, poor guy. But, being the loving and understanding husband that he is he agreed to allow me to "just look...you know, to get ideas of what I like and prices so that when we were ready we would be prepared." And then it happened. I walked into a home and felt warm all over. I knew it was right before I got my shoes off. It is this perfect combination of elements; lannon stone wall and fire place, inlaid hardwood floors and cedar ceilings, and decorative metal railing that runs the length of the second floor. It is located in this idyllic setting nestled in a hilltop subdivision with a yard that backs up against 250 acres of wooded land that the farmers weaves X-country ski trails through. However, all did not go smoothly in negotiating and purchasing this house and it was with much research and heartache that we were finally able to buy it from a couple who had only owned it for under 2 years.

The next step in the process was to have Julie, our social worker come out and do the final homestudy visit at our new house. We were very anxious to get the process going. We arranged for Bridget to come over to meet her (and to get a sneak preview of the house). When Julie walked into the front entrance of the new house her smiley expression changed. Her face was full of recognition and she got this impish twinkle in her eye. I didn't know whether she just loved the house or if she was shocked or what. In fact, I was afraid to ask. I just stood there watching her face until at last she spoke. And when she did it was to tell us that she had been in this house before to do a homestudy for a family. What made it such an amazing and special moment was that she told us that the family had bought this house at the exact same time in the process as we were (in other word she had done the majority of their homestudy while they lived in a different house and then moved right before their paperwork had been completed). What's more, they were preparing to adopt a daughter from China after having had 2 biological sons! Sound Familiar? It was as if it was confirmation that we were simply being guided by a stronger universal force to buy this particular house at this particular time. Julie's story validated a tough decision. And now I know with certainty, this is truly going to be a spectacular place to raise Poppy and her brothers.