Our First Anniversary

It was a beautiful, quiet Sunday, January 15th, our anniversary.  A day with just the two of us.   A day of celebration, in more ways than one.  God had surprised us with something absolutely incredible. He had given us a house.


This little home is everything we need, besides being everything we want.  It took some very long days to get to the point of signing the deal.  We were holding our breaths as we countered back and forth on the price. The final price somehow ended up being even less than we had expected.  We were shocked...and delighted! Dan and his dad did the home inspection, and we worked through the mortgage paperwork, slowly but surely.  I constantly had to give it over to God as the anticipation built.  It's such a beautiful little place, up island a ways, in a lovely nieghborhood a few stone throws away from the mountains, trails, hospital, grocery store, and, best of all,  Dan's parents' place.  We'd only be a fifteen minute walk away!


And then the day came, when we knew for sure we were going to be home-owners!  We are still in a state of disbelief.  It has happened so quickly!  God just kept opening those doors, in His timing not ours; but it did happen.  It all began with Dan's parents giving us a down deposit for a home, their pre-inheritance gift to us.  They are such incredible people, blessing us with an opportunity we'll never be able to thank them enough for.  It enabled us to start searching now, in such a good buyer's market, and it means our mortgage will only be as much as renting.  It was a miracle that we found such a lovely house so quickly, as there's not much out there right now.  No one is selling in winter.   Absolutely amazing!   


It's half of a duplex, with light blue siding with white trim - a modern country style home.  It has an open concept downstairs for the living room, kitchen, and dining nook, and three bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs.  Dan is thrilled with the garage.  It has a huge ceiling and lots of space for his tools and workshop.  We have a big porch out back, with a small patch of grass and flower beds along the side.  I can't wait to plant something when Spring comes around...


We are so blessed.  On our anniversary, we took hot tea to the lake, and walked the snowy trails all bundled up, talking about our ideas and plans for our future home.  We later piled into the back of our Ford Focus with blankets, pizza, and a movie, and enjoyed our "car theater" for a romantic evening out, parked by the lake... It was wonderful.  

My, how time flies... We can't believe it's been a whole year of marriage.  Life has given us some pretty big hits so far - all the big ones.  It's like we've taken a crash course in marriage.  We've learned so much, and know that if God could keep us together through all that, He'll keep us together through everything else in the many years to come.  We still feel like we're on our honeymoon in many ways.  Life together is more meaningful with each new day and each new experience.  We have an exciting 2012 ahead of us... not only as newlyweds now, but as homeowners! Hallelujah!