Sunshine, gray skies, hail, thunder, ripping wind, and beautiful sunsets… We are home and if you don’t like the weather right now, just wait a few minutes or hours because it’s likely to change.

All the things we missed while living in the desert. Although, I think Phoenix got more snow than we did here in Oklahoma this year. How crazy is that to even type!!! But…

Oklahoma We’re Home Again

 Through a lot of prayer and wrestling, followed by obedience, God allowed us to come “home again.” I am so grateful my husband was able to have the month of December to really be with his dad. Those are moments that were so overdue being gone over the last 15 years. But precious to them both in the end. We would have missed the blessing of that last month without the risk of trusting God to bring us home again.

Coming home again, was all part of God’s plan. It wasn’t part of mine. We had no plans in leaving Phoenix, well maybe to Anthem (an area just north of where we were)… But when God moves and His desires are placed in your heart and you agree- He moves fast!! There was still a bit of resistance but it wasn’t met with fear or doubt. 

Home Wasn’t Found in My Comfort Zone

We had a wonderful agent, Terry Fox working with and for us. Our house wasn’t the typical see it, love it, offer, and close. It was a tricky little listing. It had verbiage of “as is” but no where did it say it was a foreclosure or bank owned. When I flew out to walk through and see many other houses- it was very evident that it was indeed a bank owned and mess of a house!! Grateful it was empty and I didn’t have to see past belongings too.But there was also a missing professional stove and the list went on. 

BUT OH the vision that this girl had for this house. I remember the first time that my husband and I were shopping for houses right here in Oklahoma 16 years ago. Let’s just say we built our home back then. I was young and naive and the agent kept telling me to “divorce myself from the cosmetics.” I could hear his voice at every turn in this house…. 

And today, I’d like to show you the before pictures- some are listing photos and some are photos I took on the many trips (3) out here. 

Those were all listing pictures except living room.  As you see it was all gold mustardy yellow goodness and lots of Tuscan, perhaps giraffe, faux painting. I had over 4300 sq feet of paint required before we could move in. These were cosmetic and upstairs was well… very dirty and marked up and needed much love before my little and big loves were ever sleeping in those rooms. We’ll save those for another day. We just kept walking out to this next picture to remind ourselves it could all be awesome!!

I made quick friends with the ladies at Lowe’s here in town. We made several trips! This was our first and it was just Sharla’s cart of paint…. that lets you know how many walls we had waiting for us!! 

Here are some more before and progress pictures of the downstairs area. 

Pantry is huge and it too was adorned with marker and nail polish artwork on the shelves

This picture right here makes me just smile when I think back to those 3 days of insane hours of painting. It was bitter cold and I couldn’t paint in my wig for fear of getting paint on it…. so it just hung out on the staircase.  

My funny friend made us laugh and while I am sure she would have rather spent her fall break doing something else… I am grateful for moments like this!! And yes that is evidence we made a trip to Marshall’s during the trip!! 

The living room was the hardest and took the longest.  I finally had D get scaffolding so I could just finish it. I couldn’t stand looking at 3/4th of the wall painted up and the top so undone.  The boys would have left forever if it didn’t bother me so much. And given I am no stranger to the 90 minutes of anything will put you past your fear… the fact that it came home without a fence or gate up top- please ignore the safety hazard and if yours comes home this way PLEASE PLEASE take back to Home Depot to get all the pieces!! 

Promise full reveals with all the details on colors and such are on their way!! 

God closed the doors on three offers in the desert and every other house I found here…

He had this one specifically chosen for us

So incredibly grateful for my husband’s blind trust, for my friend helping me paint on a trip out before the whole family came. Grateful for the way God moved within my children.

These last 15 years have been a journey that created who we are, built our faith and deepened our trust.

We are all so excited to be HOME again.

There are so many things that I will share along the way. I planned to before today- but I had a few really hard weeks of recovery after this last breast reconstructive surgery. So come back- even better subscribe today and be the first to see the updates!!