Good

It hasn’t been perfect. I’ll say that outright, at the start, lest anyone read my words and think otherwise. These past few days have been hard, and emotions have bubbled just there, under the surface, for all of us.

Babita is not with us and dang it all, she should be. And in turns, that makes me raging mad, bitterly broken, hurt beyond words, or just plain wistful. It all depends on the moment. Because life is moving that fast and my heart and hormones, frankly, cannot keep up.

So it hasn’t been perfect. But, oh, it has been good.

There have been far too many needed trips out (“Seriously? Where is the coffee?!?” “Do we have an extension cord for this?”) but secretly, I have loved them. Because each one ends with me turning onto our long driveway and driving under the arms of a line of beautiful trees that finally gives way to my house.

Yes. We bought a barn.

Once upon a time, my husband dreamed of living in a barn. But who does that? Really, really rich people who have the time and the energy to convert an existing structure into something fabulous, that’s who. And us? We’re not rich. And we don’t really want something fabulous. Just a home. Someplace cozy to raise our kids, someplace quiet to pull back from the world and bask in the little doses of the Gospel that are found in glimpses of family life.

Like every chapter in the story of our family’s life, God penned the circumstances that led us to finding this home. Through a Facebook group, I connected with a local homeschooled getting ready to sell her family’s home of sixteen years. It had a few acres, a great location, and the price was what we just might be able to afford. But, just so you know, the house isn’t really what you’d call cookie cutter. See, it used to be a barn …

So here we are. The house is chaos, with boxes in various stages of unpacking and belongings looking for a place to land. I have already managed a messy flub with the gas oven, and our mattresses are still on the floor because no one has had the time to start assembling beds. Also, there was a somewhat startling episode involving lightning and a moving truck, but that turned out o.k. so…

I think right now, I am enjoying the early evenings the best. There are two gorgeous swings set under a massive shade tree, and a wide swath of mowed land for kids (and grown ups!) to kick a soccer ball. Last night, we took turns shooting balls at Jack– our best goalkeeper– and he even let one of mine slide past him, just because he could tell I was trying. After the game, Birdie and I watched the sparrows darting in and out of one of the bird houses, and then Phineas and I caught a June Bug. After dinner, I watched lightning bugs dancing under the trees from the window in my little reading nook.

Like I said, in the beginning– this week has not been perfect. But it has been very, very good. All we need is to convince the U.S. to let Babita come. That, I think, would bring us pretty close to perfection this side of heaven.