Since moving into what both my husband and I pray will be our “forever home” (we would NEVER like to build again), we have been working to make it truly into our home! We moved in over Thanksgiving Break and now it is almost July and it seems we’ve only scratched the surface of the “finishing” touches.

The three MAJOR finishing touches are the fences, the detached garage and the barn. Right now he is outside finishing the front left pasture (thank you Jesus for dead weeks)!! Once that pasture is done we can bring our horse and pony home!! We’ve gotten two bids for finishing the garage, but nothing actually nailed down to get it built on the foundation we have gotten completed. The barn just will not happen until next summer as long as we stick to God’s best principles about money, spending, stewarding, borrowing and saving. And, as we were putting mulch into the flower beds my husband designed, formed and welded for me (yes, he’s that good!!), I thought this is a GREAT step forward. Now maybe you’re wondering, like my mom did, what plants we put in. And maybe you’ll be slightly confused, like she was, when I say, “None!” But our flower beds are now beautifully finished with black mulch that contrasts amazingly with the stone work around the bottom of the house and porch and our lovingly transplanted Iris leaves poking out in the corners! We will look for deals on perennial plants at the end of the season and plant some in early fall if we find any. And, although it is tempting to see what isn’t done, I am coming to realize that the joy is found in seeing what is done and looking excitedly forward to what is yet to come.

So, instead of lamenting the fact that we only have a pad for our garage we should celebrate that that pad is fully paid for and that it means a garage is coming. Instead of wondering or worrying or being frustrated that our flower beds lack flowers I will rejoice that my husband can build flower beds for me, that we had left over metal border from our “old” house, and that he thought to make them for me without my asking. I will rejoice in finding mulch for the sale price we hoped to find at one store and didn’t, but found instead at the next store as the “always” price! And that fencing, well it’s the most amazing part because it’s all paid for too…. AND by this evening will be far enough along that all of us can live here!

So, our forever home may not totally be here yet, but we are here in it. And every new step brings us one more step closer to forever. So it is just up to us if we want those steps to be light and joyful or heavy and hard! It’s all about perspective and choosing to rejoice instead of worry, brood or lament!