An Anniversary

July 14, 1997…we FINALLY can call this place HOME!



After the inspector initialed off on the final inspection, we wrote that last check to the contractor, we headed back to the basement apartment we had called home for six months, got our dog, the mattresses and the coffeepot along with other “essentials” and raced back to M’brook, stopping to grab supper on the way. The race to beat an afternoon thunderstorm was becoming an issue. We should have apologized to the Churchville Tastee Freeze for the dog’s bad behavior, but we were all stressed and hungry.

Home, sweet, home had been a long time coming.


A few days later, a group of friends, showing great neighborly concern, helped us gather the rest of our belongings and delivered them to our new home. The rag-tag convoy consisted of our pick-up, a bright yellow farm truck and a dump truck. One of the things I love best about our community…this didn’t cause any type of concern…even when the “convoy” stopped to pick up the grill lid that fell out of the dump truck somewhere along the way. One of the neighbors came by the next day with a plant and a cookbook. I knew I would love M’brook!

We settled in quickly; Tom was working diligently to get the barn built and livable for our goat herd that was living elsewhere and growing by the day. When he was ready, the same friends gathered for an old-fashioned “barn-raising” and got the roof on in a single morning. Good times…good memories.

Anniversaries always make me feel somewhat nostalgic. It is all too easy to allow the fond memories of the “good old days” to cause us (me) to miss the experiences of the past and overlook the very good present days. We have been truly blessed here in the past fourteen years.

But, time marches on. Children grow up and leave home, friends change directions and move on, life is never static. …and that is a good thing. This is a very different place than it was back then, and we are very different folks in a lot of ways.

So, as we look back with fondness at the day we could finally call this home, we are also amazed at how we have grown and things have changed.
This place has seen a LOT of changes in fourteen years. There has been a lot of growing, living, and dying, mingled with happiness, sorrow, tears and laughter. This can only cause us to express gratitude for all of it, and look forward to the next fourteen years (and beyond) with expectation of more great things!

“Happy Anniversary!”