Goodbye Irby

We made a huge decision this fall. We had previously discussed possibly selling our house in the next few years and eventually building, but we had not made a move to list it yet. The new superintendent of schools moved into town and immediately wanted to buy our house. Josh had already looked at some properties to flip, so we were quickly faced with a big decision. The girls and I were very emotionally attached to our house of 10 years. It was the one we brought our babies home to and the only home they have ever known. They were very hesitant before the moving process began. Josh had some wonderful plans in the works...the problem was going to be what to do in the meantime. Our wonderful neighbors, Rob and Linda, so generously offered their house to us since they were currently living out of town for work. So on my birthday, we sold our very first owned home and moved next door into a 150 year old house that looks like it belongs in a magazine!

I worried that the transition would be hard for the girls since they would be able to see people moving into their house every day, but through prayer and lessons from the Lord, we never looked back! We see Superintendent Speegle and his wife all the time and love to hear about things they are doing to THEIR house.

Yes, I will always cherish every memory in that house. I love thinking of all of the fingerprints on the walls from our children and countless other friends that frequented our home. I thank God for a whole decade there, in the perfect place to raise our girls. And I look forward to what God has in store for the next decade and more!

We learned very quick that the old adage, "Home is where your family is," is actually more true than we knew.

And this following story is a message straight from God's heart to mine: When we were looking at a house to fix up and grimacing at the roughness of it, I kept telling the girls about the plans to make it look/smell better and more comfortable for us to temporarily live in. "We will do this to make it look better, and don't worry about this because we will change that...And you know, girls, this is not going to be our forever home anyway." And Brenna promptly said, "Nope, it's not heaven."

Amen to that...our old house, our fixer upper, and even the house that we will be building...none of those are truly our forever homes.