Home

When we bought our first house, it was a direct answer to prayer. We had moved from Colorado, a state where a one income family of three just could not swing a house payment. Not without feeling an extreme squeeze, and living in a hovel anyway. We prayed SO HARD for a home of our own, without neighbors above us who informed us of each score the Colorado Avalanche made, each touchdown the Broncos scored, each funny line Seinfeld said.

And God answered our prayers.....by sending us hundreds of miles away. Far away from family, friends, church and HOME. And we went, nervously, but with a complete sense of peaceful obedience. We quickly found a rental and moved in to a lovely little cottage, a yard of our own, and no noisy upstairs neighbors, only to discover that our landlord was a psycho. Not kidding, he was completely crazy.

Then, God made a miracle provision, so with nervous, yet peaceful obedience, we were able to purchase our first home! Isaac was almost 3, and Emma was on the way, so we blissfully painted walls and hung up fluffy curtains and Starwars decals. We brought both our girls home to this house, and painted every room at least once. After adding two more kids and a kitty, our house was beginning to feel slightly... well, crowded. And it needed some TLC that we were financially and physically unable to provide, and so we started praying....again.

That prayer resulted in our nervously peaceful move to our current home. It is actually slightly smaller than our previous home, but the layout is so much better that we got more living space in it. It was just the right size for a family of five, and as we had no plans to add another child anytime soon, it was perfect!

And then God showed his sense of humor, as well as his mighty power, and immediately provided us with another baby. Mac was born exactly nine months after we moved into this house. Now, we weren't exactly crowded, we just had to be a bit more , um, creative? with the space we had. Mac had two porta-cribs. His daytime bed in Isaac's room, out of the way and quiet. His night time bed in the living room, where he wouldn't disturb anyone's sleep. Well, anyone's but mine! And when he ougrew that, into a bunkbed. We are a two bunkbed household!

As we pursue our plans to add a fifth child through adoption, with that same nervous, yet peacefuly obedient feeling, I can't help but wonder (and worry) about what to pray about our home. It would be a planning problem beyond my current capabilities to figure out where to add one more body to this bulging home. As we add new students, and their supplies, to our little school, and as these current little bodies begin to take up adult amounts of space, I know we will need a bigger home, and yet I can not make myself say it.