A Stake in the Ground

26 months

John and I are from opposite sides of the moon when it comes to commitment. He is a same job, same place, same people, same life kind of person, and I am the exact opposite. The only reason I have friends that are older than a few years is because of their effort! I'm bad. I enjoy the conversations when and if we get together and I love them just the same, but you won't catch me on the phone calling friends, chatting about the weather, hair, kids, horse shoes, whatever. I hate the phone! It represents vulnerability, not something I like to dance with. John is always telling me to call this person or that, or settle this issue or that, and I respond with, "Why? when there's email?" It's so much safer. He rolls his eyes.

So along came this house. Keep in mind I haven't lived anywhere longer than the four years I've lived here since I left for college. I've always lived with one foot out of the crib. So building a house has been a huge scary process. Not to mention the fact that you have to pay a huge fine in Germany if you sell it before 10 years (that's how they keep inflation down). I have been quite a brat through the whole process, repeatedly suggesting that I didn't care if we had wood floors or AstroTurf, 3 panel windows or ten, "go ahead! order our kitchen from PlaySchool." It was my way of distancing myself from the looming darkness of finality. Alas, God is teaching me.

Teaching me that intimacy with friends is not a bad thing, slowing down long enough to examine my direction is good, allowing my husband's and my relationship to grow; numbers to our team and grow in oneness is a blessing and sometimes we can cover up what's inside with business. It was time (has been time) to lay it all out on the table. God is good.

So, here our some pics of the stakes in the ground at our site. Presumably showing us where the house will be. John thought it was rather small, but I remember that strange phenomenon when my parents built. I also like the size of the yard. I had a dream this week that we ran out of room in the house and had to put our extra bathroom with tub outside the back door, on very little space. It wasn't a dream, it was a nightmare.

This is sort of the view of where our grassy stretch is going to be where Keane can kick his soccer ball.

I know, you can't really tell what you're looking at. This pic is from the back corner of our property, obviously pointed forward, at an angle.



We've already met these neighbors, they are a really nice young couple with a son a little older than Keane.