I NEEDED a home for my new baby, but….
Picture this…You are 9 months pregnant with your first child, renting a house you cannot buy and you want a HOME for your child. You are freaking out because you have never been a mom and have NO CLUE how to do it and you have no permanent home for your first born child. This was me. Here’s what I did.
I freaked out and made my fiancé start looking for houses. Our due date was February 5th and I starting freaking out around November. “Our baby needs a HOME!” “We can’t move every year because we don’t own a house!” So, the house hunt had begun. We looked in the classifieds, online and drove around. I was doing choreography for a middle school my mom worked in at the time and an opportunity arose. A teacher was selling a house in which his mother had lived, then he rented to his daughter and now it was for sale. I was ecstatic. My fiancé and I looked at the home. It was the perfect size and reasonably priced. Of course, being the responsible 20 year olds we were, we counter offered and it got accepted! We became homeowners. #winning
We moved in right before Christmas, had our baby in February and were good to go! We thought…. Fast forward 10 years later and we are still here. In a 3 bedroom, 1.75 bathroom ranch with 3 kids, a huge dog and a tiny yard. We had promised each other we would only be here 5 years. That was our goal. Before we had any more kids or got established we would move to our dream home. The reality was we were stuck in our “starter home” after life got in the way.
Moral of the story? Be cautious and sure when you pick a house for a home. Home is where the heart is. My children cannot imagine living in another house. However, my husband and I know we need and want more space and could use a better yard. For now, we will enjoy our closeness, the family time it almost forces & being able to ensure our kids cannot sneak out. For our future, we dream of better. If you find a house you think you need, but don’t NEED & fall in love with, Wait. Wait until you find a house you fall in love with and that feels like home immediately. If the home you “liked” gets away, a home you’ll “love” is waiting.
I feel compelled to share that our family is happy, healthy and blessed. We may not have our dream home, but it is on our path in the future. We are blessed beyond belief and are thankful for what we have.