You Don’t Know What You Have Unitl It’s Gone
August 20, 2010 by Paul
Filed under Uncategorized
If I could only turn back the hands of time to May 2006. My husband and I were very young when we bought our first home. We fell in love with it the moment we walked in the door. We ran to the bank teller, took out a $2,000.00 cash advance on our credit cards and placed the required deposit on our dream home. We scraped every penny for an entire year while the home was under construction in order to have enough for the closing costs. Every Sunday on our way home from church we would go by the construction site and see the improvements and would take countless pictures of every phase of the construction. My boys would run around the empty lot and fight over whose room would be whose. One day before they laid the foundation my husband, my two children, and I wrote on a piece of paper, “In this house the foundation is Christ” we all signed it, and buried it under what was to be the master bedroom as a token of our appreciation to what God had provided for us. The next day the foundation was laid, sealing our promise. Finally, the move-in day arrived and, even though we only had milk crates for chairs and a barbeque grill for a kitchen, we felt like King and Queen of the castle. Our first home-the place we would raise our family! Even though my husband and I were teenage parents, we were the first of our siblings to own a home. We felt proud and accomplished.
We purchased a home closer to the kid’s schools and all went well for the first few months. Even though the new home was grand, it had a superficial beauty which did not fill my soul. I soon realized I had made a big mistake but I was terrified to share this feeling with my husband. My husband and I would often drive by our old house to see what improvements the new owners had made. It was a way to quench our nostalgia. A year after moving, I still wrestled with the guilt for having left our first home.
About a year ago, I received a frantic call from my mother who insisted that I turn on the T.V. It was my old house on the widescreen, police tape around it. I immediately called my husband and kids and we all turned up the volume and gathered around the TV. I tried to focus on what the newswoman was repeating over and over, “Unbelievable, a family with children living inside a marijuana lab…” Instantly my heart sank to the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t believe the irony. The home we dedicated to the Lord was being used as a drug lab. I could see the sadness in my oldest son’s eyes. My youngest son was confused and did not quite understand what was happening. My husband was devastated and I felt responsible for convincing him to move. I knew immediately that God was sending ME a message. The contract our family buried under the ground was being enforced!
I do not know what happened to the family who lived there but I found out today that the home will be auctioned to the lowest bidder on November 6, 2009. Tonight as I laid in bed something told me to Google the address, and the first link that came up was the auction announcement. I was shocked to find out that it was actually just announced yesterday. It’s like if something was telling me to look.
I would trade my current home for my old home in a heart-beat. You really don’t know what you have until it’s gone. I live this cliché daily and regret the day I placed that FOR SALE sign on my front lawn. My family belongs in that home and I truly believe God wants us there. If I could only turn back the hands of time.
I hope you enjoy this story and please know that it is ALL real. My advice for everyone is: hold on to the things you love and don’t be quick to trade them for what you feel is better or more practical. Most of the times our instincts know best! I still have not figured out how I’m going to get my home back, but I know God will find a way.