Will South Dakota Feel Like Home?

 

Before our last trip to South Dakota, I prayed for peace about moving there. This whole thing has seemed so surreal to me that it has been hard to feel sure that this place in South Dakota can truly be "home" to us. It might be God's will, based on what Jonathan feels, but does that mean it will feel like home? Can I be at peace?

After slogging through snow and gumbo, dry paths and willowy river banks for two and a half weeks, this still unfinished house in South Dakota was feeling more and more like home. It is still majorly primitive, but we are getting used to it, and finding a sort of routine.

And then one morning as I was working in the fifth wheel, most likely cleaning up after breakfast and thinking about a lunch menu, I saw this dove sitting outside my window. 

And I remembered my prayer for peace about this move and about this new home place.

And God sent a dove of peace to perch right outside my window! 

Small thing, perhaps, but not for me. Small things can mean a lot. 

And it meant even more when we had finally worked through an enormous amount of rigamarole to find a spot that the postal service would approve to put our mailbox (big enough for packages since our lane is too long for the postal carrier to deliver).

No, the postal service said, we may not put it at the end of our driveway because it was on a steep hill that was too close to a curve, and the road is a major route for semis. Here's one passing just after we set up our mailbox.

The postal service wanted us to set our mailbox way down the road, across the river, and way back inside a gate on someone else's private property by an already existing mailbox.

Excuse me??? 

Finally, we worked out something with our postal service that worked for both them and us.

I can have a nice walk through fields, hills, and draws to get to the mail box.

High fives!  

And having our own mailbox does wonders for me feeling like this may become "home" again after all.