We're in the middle of packing for our trip to New Mexico to head up a big work crew driving in from dear old Pennsylvania (thinking of the trees and flowers and fields and farms, not the traffic and politics and that stuff! :)
They're coming in to remodel an empty office building donated to a Navajo mission for a new schoolroom.
Every once in a while, I have to stop in the middle of packing Sunday clothes and toothbrushes and stories for devotionals for the school children all next week
to catch my breath.
So I write.
Antoine
de Saint-Exupéry said, “Love does not consist of gazing at each other,
but in looking outward together in the same direction.”
Jonathan and I are seldom happier than when we are in ministry together--even if that means working with our hands--and it's exciting to see it coming together again!
Yesterday a realtor that Jonathan knows came to have a look at our
house and property so we could have some idea what we need to update and what we may as well leave as is.
He
said right now in El Paso County, with population of 720,000, there are
only some over 400 houses total (including townhomes, etc) available,
as of yesterday. Just one week ago, there were over 800. This is bad for
his business, because he has a business of selling houses, and if there
are hardly any to sell, he's in trouble. He says right now a house is
usually on the market only 24 hours to 72 hours before it is under
contract. The longest most places are on the market is 17 days.
He
would like us to do some preliminary cleanup, and then do a test run to
see what kind of interest there would be for our property. Although the
house needs a lot of remodeling and updating (needs new kitchen
cabinets and counter, new flooring, new paint throughout, etc.) he says
the real value comes from the fact that it has 5 acres of land to go
with it. He was amazed at what we've done with the property, calling it a
"farm farm!" He was so curious about everything that he could hardly keep his mind on what he actually came for.
The
trouble as I see it is that I am afraid the test run will sell our
house, and then where would we live? I feel sure there are people out
there who would like this unique place. Besides acreage, it has a barn,
loafing shed, chicken coops, bee house, fodder house, and greenhouse.
There is a lot of fencing already done. We will probably leave some of
the firewood. The realtor felt we could work it out with whoever buys it
that we would be able to rent it back for a few months till we move to
SD. None of us wants to think about having to move twice...
We were pretty encouraged about this realtor's thoughts. As soon as
he came in he sniffed and said, "This smells nice!" Hannah had been
burning a few candles. Then after looking through the whole house, even
after seeing all the use and storage downstairs and the not-so-perfect
upkeep, he sat there trying to find the right word for this particular
house. Cozy? No, he just couldn't quite get it. "I feel love here," he
said, still searching for the word he wanted.
Of course, when you are trying to
sell a house, you want to have it "staged," having it all cleaned up,
all clutter and personal items out, so it looks inviting, lovely, and
spacious. But even with all our big family and home schooling stuff, the realtor was
struggling to say the positive sense he was trying to put in words about
our home.
"I feel love here," he managed to say.
There is clutter, but there is love.
There are outdated kitchen cabinets and chipped paint and crooked decor, but there is love.
There is a worn out carpet and flooring, but there is love.
Coming up on Valentine's Day, and knowing what God's Word says about the value of love, that was special to me.
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