Where we love is home, Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Shaniko, Oregon

Life in Oregon is beginning to shut down. Final farewells are becoming a part of life. More each week. There is a bittersweetness to every place we go now, knowing it will probably be the last time we'll visit it in our lifetime. Each person, each place...it's like a new tick on Life's Checklist. One more down. Less to go. Closure.

Since visiting Michigan two weeks ago with my daughter-in-law for a long weekend of whirlwind house hunting...since finding the house that's looking - more likely- each day to become our new home...I feel myself drawing further away from life here, yearning more for what's awaiting us 2300 miles away. I find myself imagining thru the day where I might place this piece of furniture, that piece, in our new home. I see myself re-landscaping the yard to what I love...where I might hang a wind chime or two, which window I'll place the bird feeder near. I imagine my grandsons and me out walking the new streets, discovering new 'treasures', getting acquainted with our new surroundings. I'll have a new kitchen window to gaze out of as I wash my daily dishes. A new view of the four seasons changing. I'll wait to hear Dear Hubby's truck pull into a driveway at the end of the day instead of seeing it pull up to the curb in front of our house here. I will see new birds at the feeder. I'll need to get a book on native birds of the region to identify them for Dylan and Cooper. I'll find out how long it will take me to feel comfortable inside, moving around in the dark. I'm sure I'll wake up in the middle of the nite, not knowing where I'm at for a few moments. I'll be getting used to new 'settling' sounds as the house embraces me and takes me in. I will feel the ghosts of the family who built it and raised a family there, who so lovingly cared for their home. And I will love and care for it, too.

It is a wonderful feeling to know you're in the center of God's will in your life. It's a remarkable experience to sit back and let God work things out in His way, not interfering and being content to let things flow as they will. To see His wisdom in how He takes care of every little detail that comes along in such a monumental undertaking, completely establishing a life for us so far from here. There is no fear. There is no anxiety. It is in God's hands, and God makes no mistakes.

And as each door closes behind us there is a deep peace. A settled peace. Closure.