Breaking Ground

Our house journey started two years ago when we came home, giddy, from the courthouse and stood in our weedy field with this sign.

We were land owners! Over the next two years we lived on one teacher's salary - saving the other for our dream house and Brad's Master's program tuition. We dreamed. We cried (OK, I cried) when we learned we simply could not afford the house we planned to build. So we set aside those blueprints and created new plans. I googled, my dad and Brad drew, and an architect turned our ideas into home plans made just for us. We went to a bank and had green lights all the way to a crushing appraisal. I cried some more. We started the loan process over again with a new bank, and the appraisal came in higher than we dared to hope. We waited for a nail biting month for the paperwork and underwriting to come back. And yesterday, after two years of highs and lows, penny pinching and prayers, we closed on our construction loan. We came home, giddy, and stood in our weedy field with a shovel.

With thankful hearts we dug into the hard, red clay...

And broke ground.

On Monday, the real ground breaking equipment will move in, and the excavation will begin! I know to some a house is just a place to live, but to me this is already a home. This is the place where I grew up and skinned my knees and dreamed of falling in love. This is where, God willing, we will be blessed enough to start a family and raise children a stone's throw from their grandparents. This is where we will plant trees and build snowmen and celebrate the grand adventures of life.

This is home.

<3
Hattie