Life takes you to unexpected places

The summer of 2012 was difficult for our family. We suddenly found ourselves moving from Indiana to Texas due to my husband’s job. It was hard. This move took our boys away from everything and everyone who was familiar to them. It took me away from my family and friends. We found ourselves uprooted and in what seemed to be a far and distant land.

My hubby immediately had a purpose and people to talk to every day because he was going to work, but for me and the boys, it wasn’t quite that easy. The boys were able to make some friends through school and sports. I was able to make some great friends through volunteering at my younger son’s school. Eventually, we fell into a routine, and things became easier as we developed our new normal.

Before our move, a very wise woman, a mentor of mine, told me that things were difficult right now, but eventually I would look back and understand why it was all happening. I wanted to believe her; I really did, but at the time I just couldn’t see it!

Then, one day, my husband was given the opportunity to begin working from home. When he asked if “from home” could be in Indiana, since he does the majority of his work from his cell phone and computer, his boss put things into motion. Within a few months, the approval came from the powers-at-be, and we were moving back to Indiana.


Indiana Bound

Once we knew things were ago, we made a few short trips back home to begin looking for homes to buy or empty lots where we could build. Pretty early on, my dad approached me and my hubby with an idea.

Several months before, he and my mom had purchased a piece of land just down the road from their house. It had been a foreclosed property with a dilapidated house on it that could easily be blown over with the first good wind. They had purchased the lot because it was right next to my Grandma and Grandpa’s old horse barn. They had purchased the barn from my Grandmother before she passed, so purchasing this foreclosed property gave them a more expansive piece of property and a good investment.


Dilapidated house

The Barn

Back to the idea of my dad’s…one night after we had been out looking at property, my dad told us if we wanted the piece of property they had purchased, it was ours. I didn’t even look at my husband. In my head, all I could think was hell-to-the-no. I was absolutely sure that my husband of almost 20 years, who had told me over-and-over that he was not moving to a town that small was going to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Even I was thinking, I am 40 years old, do I want to live that close to my parents again?? Before I could respond, my always surprising hubby chimed in, “I think that would work!” I was shocked and amazed and excited and a little nervous, and surprisingly…totally on board! We traveled back to Texas at the end of the weekend, and after a few short discussions, we decided the perfect place to make our home would be in the small Southern Indiana town where I had grown up.

The decision was made in January, but we still had to return home to get our house in Texas sold. We spent the next couple of months getting our house ready to sell, and making arrangements for the move back to Indiana. The “For Sale” sign went in the yard in March and 5 weeks later, the house sold. The last weekend of March, 2016, we loaded up our cars and pulled out of our driveway in Texas for the last time.