Half Fast Farm

 “I found some properties we should look at,” I would say nightly, after dinner.

It became our evening routine; looking at properties online and dreaming of how we would decorate and where we would put the horse-barn. On the weekends, most Saturday mornings were spent riding west about 45 minutes to lay our eyes on whatever properties we had dreamed of during that week. Many drives back to our little Half Acre Farm were spent talking ourselves out of whatever we had seen. The property is just too low for the horses. The house could be perfect but the timing, Little Miss would have to change schools…etc.

For years this was our pattern and while it was wonderful to dream of our future farm, it often became frustrating. Moreso as Little Miss’s graduation date rapidly approached, the dream of moving west was becoming more and more attainable. Our Saturday morning drives back home were no longer spent with us talking ourselves out of purchases but talking ourselves into purchases that were a far cry from perfect.

We saw signs of “perfection” in every home we looked at. One, in particular, seemed like the perfect little fixer-upper cottage-style farmhouse on 20+ acres of land. We ogled over the listing for days before doing a drive-by and calling our real estate gal for backup. 

“The house is tiny but with all that land, we won’t ever be in it…how bad can the inside really be?!” we said, on the way to do a walk-through.

Turns out, pretty bad. We named it Alice in Wonderland because the foundation was so off that from the front to the back of the house, we seemed to sprout up in height and couldn’t get out the door without bending down.

“Let’s put an offer on it…it’ll be an adventure to fix up!” we decided.

Sidenote: we prayed so hard for God to show us signs that this property was the one. Upon arrival, an eagle landed in the field. We were immediately captivated. Teary-eyed. This is where we are supposed to be! The eagle promptly flew off.

“Well…it either means this is it…or it means we are supposed to follow him b/c this place is a death trap!”

The property went under contract before we submitted our offer. I was devastated. I had already started a Pinterest board for renovation ideas and thought up future farm/barn names. (Don’t worry. I steered clear of the Wonderland Ranch.)

I cried over a house that's foundation was more unstable than my emotions.

“I don’t want to look anymore. For years we have looked and looked and I keep getting so disappointed…I can’t do it. If there is a house out there that God wants us to have, then it will just have to find us,” I said, through sniffles.

My sweet husband agreed. While we both wanted this dream to come true more than anything, it was starting to feel like maybe it wasn’t meant to be. 

The next day we received a call from our friend who is more like our family.

“Hey…I was talking to a buddy and he might have an old farmhouse he’d like to sell on some acres if ya’ll wanna go look at it? It’s not listed but here is the address…”

Okay, God…now you’re just toying with my emotions.

I was fully prepared to hate it. I had made my peace with our decision to stop looking and was just along for the ride…until we pulled up to the driveway.

It was the house of my dreams. Our dreams. It was the kind of house that, on our first-ever (and every one since) road trip, we would point to and say- that one…wouldn’t it be nice to sit on our front porch and look down a long driveway with the horses grazing in a big pasture.

As we pulled down the long driveway, I got chills. So much for hating it, I thought to myself. I already didn’t care what the inside looked like. It had me at two porches and a metal roof. But the inside was equally as perfect as the outside. It was us and I immediately felt more at home than ever.

“Get your house sold…we are excited to have ya’ll as neighbors,” the owner told us, while shaking our hands.

We drove home and were filled with every emotion possible on the rollercoaster. We listed our house immediately and within five days, it was under contract. (Thanks to our real estate queen, Audra Shackelford!)

We did have one memorable prospective buyer who was concerned with how sanitary the property was with the horse stalls below the house. My eyes rolled so hard I gave myself a migraine. (Since the horses don’t convey- and they are vegetarians with a better diet than any human I know….fret not, pal.)

Before we knew it, we were closing on both properties and moving was in full-swing. After the first night in our home, we woke up in pure disbelief. It has been over a month of living in our dream home, and we still look at each other every night and say how we can’t believe this property is ours.

Why do I write all of this? Why am I sharing this? Because this was a dream that we prayed for. We worked hard to achieve it but God provided all the tools for us to make this dream a reality. One of my favorite people, Missie Dejarnette, once reminded me that God hears all of our prayers no matter how big or small. So if you have a dream, talk to God about it. It may take some time for Him to pave the way, but trust me, He will.