Have you experienced times in your life when the stars seem to align and life starts unfolding like the clothes falling out of a laundry basket? Where you thought you knew how life was going to go, but all of a sudden there’s a detour onto an exciting new path?
On a random Monday, two days before Valentine’s Day of this year, I drove past a For Sale By Owner sign on my way to a new coffee shop I wanted to explore. After my coffee, I detoured to see where the sign that caught my attention a few hours prior, led.
As I drove past the house, I thought: Oh no. This looks like it could be Brian’s dream property.
We weren’t looking to move. Our current home was custom-built for us twelve years ago. It was our forever home. But for the past few years, Brian has expressed that he can’t relax at home. The road behind our house was getting busier and as a guy who grew up on a farm, this was not relaxing. As a city girl, I didn’t understand why the traffic was a nuisance.
After that first drive-by, I went home and searched the home online. I was pleasantly surprised to see interior pictures of a fully remodeled home. It was then that I shot Brian a text, sharing the online link to the home. His reply was one word and one emoji: “Wow!!” (along with the smiling face with heart eyes).
Within weeks we decided to make an offer on the home. Within a month, we had purged our current home: donating over 8 vehicle loads of belongings, filling a dumpster, and loading 2 Uhaul pods with items we wouldn’t need while our house was listed to sell.
Our dream home went on the market. Often I had to consciously rewire my brain from the anxiety and fear that crept in. I would be okay without my mud room. This move will be “worth it”. We would always hold the happy memories from our custom built home, even after we moved on physically. Within 2 weeks of listing our house, we accepted an offer. An offer that would have us moving by the end of that current month, April.
Within 11 weeks of me driving past this house, we were living in it. Moving this fast (metaphorically and physically speaking) was not like us at all; at least not when it came to such a big change in our lives. The same week of our move, I traveled to the Mayo Clinic for my 6 month PET scan to be sure that my metastatic cancer was still showing No Evidence of Active Disease. This was my first trip since the loss of my cancer bestie. The first time not having her with me or a phone call away.
When I am processing big emotions like these, writing is a way for me to unpack it all and see it more clearly. Here is what I wrote the week of our move, the day going to Mayo for my scans:
There are times in the last months, that I’ve said my heart hasn’t caught up to my life. Now it feels my brain hasn’t caught up to all that’s happening. Almost as if I want life to continue moving this fast. So I can get through this stage, rather than processing it. But getting through it includes processing it. That’s where sometimes I find, I forget. I look forward to — it’ll all be great, as soon as we pack all of this up. As soon as we’re in the new house, then I’ll be able to rest. Then everything will be good. What I tend to forget, that if I don’t process all of these feelings now, they will inevitably sneak into a moving box, and will be unpacked there without me realizing it.
My scan results again showed No Evidence of Active Disease (Thank you, God. Thank you, cancer research). And we are moved into our new home. It felt like home immediately.
Our little family of 3 is so happy with our peaceful piece of heaven. It’s an everyday retreat within the city that we call home.
For us, this experience has been a reminder to trust God’s timing in life. It’s been a reminder that when the universe gives you signs, sometimes it’s worth the detour and courage to explore them. The growth and memories we’ve made here already far exceed what we thought they would, and we’re just getting started.
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