Feeling a Shift

Since our little homestead here in northern Vermont went under contract this past July, we have been praying and searching for where our next home would be.

On September 18th, our home became officially not our own - as we formally closed on it and the new owners took ownership.  We are more than blessed that the new owners are wonderfully kind and are fine with us staying here until the spring when they will move here or until we find our new home.  Knowing that we don't want to look for homes in the winter nor move during mudseason, we have been very busy looking.

We have been looking around where we live now - putting offers on a few different places - weighing pros and cons - praying - offers  not being accepted - minds changing....

Do we stay here with our church or do we move on to a new area - with new adventures and people?

We spent this past weekend in the midcoast area of Maine but inland a bit, close enough to attend the Common Ground fair (something that has been on my wish list for years!).  We stayed at a Christian summer camp and retreat center, staying in a little cottage right on the lake - so beautiful the setting.

We had two properties on our list to see.  Maine has been in our minds for some time because of the little bit of a higher population, more culture, and the lower property taxes.  The first home we saw, made us not want to see the other.  We saw it on Friday afternoon after our long drive over.

Saturday was spent at the fair and we did a little more exploring of the area after.  There is even an Amish community in Unity.  We felt at home among the people, among the rolling hills and farms, and learned that there is a strong homeschool community there - where there is none where we are now.

We told ourselves to enjoy Sunday, arrive home, see how we felt at home, sleep on it, pray some more, and then make a decision this morning.  Unfortunately, God can't make decisions for us, He has left that up to our feeble human minds.  We know that wherever we live, we are to bring glory to Him, put our family second, and then serve the community.

So we put an offer on the house this morning.  The amazing part of it is that the asking price is so much less than anything else we have looked at.  It has seven acres, is an older cape but in good condition with an attached garage for the workshop.  Our payments will be much less than what we had here in northern Vermont and if all goes well, we will have our own wooded acreage to supply our business and maple trees to tap for a year supply of our family's syrup, plenty of grazing room and garden space (although I will be starting from scratch again).

I will keep you posted as our life takes a new direction - a new place but really just a continuation of what we began 6 years ago when we took the leap to support our family with the works of our hands.