Sweet Home Alabama

House

It is finally time for an official move report.  I posted on facebook a couple of weeks ago about our Wild Goose Chase.  We have chased the Wild Goose all the way to Birmingham, Alabama (the city of Helena to be exact), and we now sport “Sweet Home Alabama” tags on our vehicles.  It has been a wild ride, to be sure, and one that has been full of surprises–some good (like the blues band at the Mississippi Welcome Center and the lightning bugs sparkling at night) and some bad (like the UHaul’s inability to navigate the hill in our driveway and the a/c fan motor in our house that blew out, resulting in a visit from the fire department our first Monday morning here.)

Back to the South

Birmingham is a beautiful place, and the people have been warm and welcoming.  It feels strangely home to both Bill and me, despite the fact that neither of us have ever lived in the state of Alabama.  We both claim the deep south as home (I–Lousiana, and he–South Carolina), and we keep finding subtle yet definite signs that we are back “home”.  Things like fireflies, tomatoes grown by every neighbor, smocked dresses on little girls, barbecue chicken, front porches, flowers by the thousands, summer rain showers, trees towering above the rooftops, and beauty at every turn all join together to give us the distinct feeling of coming home.  Between our new house, which is much bigger than our old one, and the general Southern charm, we feel like we are on a perpetual vacation.

One of the first things we did, after unloading 2 moving truck loads up the hill and into the 2-story-on-a-basement home, was to purchase 2 white rocking chairs from Cracker Barrel so that we could fully enjoy our new Southern lifestyle.  No more folding out camping chairs in the driveway to watch the kids ride bikes in the baking sun.  No siree.  Now we watch them from our rockers on our porch up the hill, thank ya Lord.  And when all the fixer-upper projects are done, Bill will be making me a new swing for the other end of the porch, just like the one he built that we left for the new owners in Altus.  I look forward to completing the front porch atmosphere with hanging ferns and big pots of flowers.  Then I will truly think I died and went to heaven.

Our New Home

The home we found is quite a story of God’s provision.  Back in April I had taken an exploratory trip to Helena to verify our sense of God’s calling that we were to move this location.  I house-hunted with my mom after visiting the schools and meeting with principals, and I was hard-pressed to come up with the “right” home that suited all of our needs yet still stayed within our desired price range.  We put an offer in on a big dream-home-to-be that was unfinished, figuring we would finish it ourselves, as long as we could get it low enough.  We didn’t get it.  Someone bid higher.  Then, a week later, we put in a contract on a home a little smaller than our Altus house that was a beautiful home in a good neighborhood, even though it was a bit small.  T-H-R-E-E days before the closing, two crazy random things happened with the appraisal and survey, and we opted not to buy the home.  That left us with about 5 weeks to find a home, get a contract on the home, secure the mortgage, and close on it before our scheduled move date.  All from over 800 miles away.

So Bill set out for the second house-hunting journey, with a truckload of our belongings to put in a storage unit while he was at it.  While he was on the way, I began to pray, in a way that I had not before, truly calling out to God to open up His storehouse and provide for us a house that met our basic needs without requiring us to rent a storage unit or give up all of the things we love to do and have been gifted with.  Remember, we made this move at His divine direction, so we felt that He would surely provide what we need to accomplish this plan.

First of all, we plan to both work from home.  So we need an office space big enough for the both of us.  Second of all, we cook several meals a week, so we need a kitchen big enough to do more than just turn around in.  Third of all, we have a lot of stuff, which is because we do a lot of stuff, and we needed a place to keep it and do it.  Sewing, crafting, woodworking, welding, photography, you name it.  Skills require tools, tools require space, and we were both willing to give it all up to go where God leads.  But really?  Is that what He wanted for us?  “If that’s what You want, that’s what we’ll do.  But pleeeeze let us continue these gifts you have given us in this new place of service.  You own the cattle on a thousand hills, so you must surely have a house that will suit us and that we can afford.  And like, today…” This was part of my prayer.

Apparently God was listening.  Perhaps He had been waiting ALL ALONG for me to really start believing that He had a house pre-selected for us and to just flat out ask for it.  I didn’t just ask for the “right house”.  I spelled it out in a 35-point list of the features that I believed our house required to meet our needs.  As audacious as that sounds, there weren’t luxury items in those 35 things, like granite countertops or grandiose light fixtures.  The list was really pretty basic, with things like: a pantry; a dining room; a laundry room; a fourth bedroom or office; a workshop or basement etc.  I added a few extras like the front porch, fresh paint, and great neighbors, but I didn’t go overboard.  And I have to tell you, this house I am sitting in, complete with 33 things from that list, came on the market the DAY Bill traveled to Helena to look for houses.  It was a foreclosure, so it had the space we really needed all packed in to the budget we had allotted.  I still have to pinch myself to find out if it’s for real.

Not only did God provide for us this great house, He put it right in the middle of tons of sweet of neighbors, in the school district we wanted, and with freshly-painted trim, doors, walls, new carpet and hardwood floors on the main.  Now, we have had plenty of work to do to bring the rest of the house up to par, but the space is here, and the house is darling and perfectly situated on the top of a hill with a mountainous view.

Project People

I distinctly remember writing one of my very first blog articles, some eight years ago, about the fact that I am not a Project Person.  Well, folks, I wasn’t then, but after 11 years of being married to Bill McKelvey, I have to suck it up and claim myself as a project person.  It took me a long time to admit it, but I have completely become what I thought I would never be.  (Never say never…)  So, this house is perfect for us project people.  Some of Bill’s projects thus far have included: replacing the condensate pump, running a gas line to the dryer, rebuilding several toilets, removing the broken storm door, servicing air conditioners, replacing the fan motor on an a/c, and installing a gazillion blinds.  My projects?  Scrubbing tile, cleaning windows, painting inside stinky cabinets (one of those not-so-nice surprises), and of course unpacking 5,000 boxes.  There’s a whole lot of overspray left over from the painting crew, so we have some elbow grease yet to expend in places we wouldn’t have realized.  And several appliance installations await, since the appliances were complete bombs.

Needless to say, it’s been a big-time challenge to move into a house needing so much work, but we have felt so very grateful to have this house to work on, that we have enjoyed most every minute of it.

Looking Forward

We visited a big, fancy church today.  We didn’t realize that’s what it was–we just sort of took a stab at where to visit.  It turned out to be wonderfully welcoming, and the people took us right in and helped every member of our family get connected right off the bat.  It is very odd to answer the questions of what brought us to Birmingham, seeing as how we don’t yet really know, other than that God led us here and we like it.  The pastor’s sermon had three main points–God is Good, God is Great, and God is Gracious.  And the statement I took home was that God will give us the grace to do the next right thing that He has called us to do.

God called us to move to Alabama.  It has been a moment by moment faith journey.  Uncomfortable? Yes.  Uncertain? Absolutely.  Scary?  A little.  But God is good.  And He has the power to work His grace throughout our lives.  That’s all I know at this moment. The next right thing for me to do is to go to bed.  And the next right thing after that, besides take care of my family, is to paint some stinky cabinets.  And sooner or later, He will reveal the next right thing for us to do, that will hopefully have a paycheck attached to it.  Until then, we have only to trust.

Chasing the Wild Goose

As I sit here listening to the tromping and hammering of roofers replacing my hail-beaten roof, the one that will only belong to me for 10 more days, and with the inocuous smell of cardboard filling my nostrils and with the faint sounds of Angry Birds cackling, squawking, and crashing down snowy boards on the iPad, I’m contemplating whether I should be brewing coffee, packing dishes, creating graphics for a client, or typing a message to my friends around the world about the fact that all of this is happening and why.

Obviously, I’ve opted for the latter.  I have procrastinated this duty for quite some time, mainly because I have procrastinated it for quite some time.  See, if I had been keeping my peeps all over the world (and mostly the South) in the loop all through this journey, I wouldn’t have such a big long story to tell.  But, it has been such an arduous journey, and so much of it intensely personal and spiritual and just plain MYSTERIOUS, that I haven’t felt the liberty to discuss it publicly.

Even after Bill’s announcing his decision to our church in May that he would be resigning his position as church business administrator here in Altus, Oklahoma, I still was not ready to talk with the masses about this journey that we are on and about the fact that we are choosing to uproot from our 8-year-deep plot of friendships and community to move across the country in the absence of another job or ministry position or any other “official” and socially acceptable reason for doing so.

It is still a very mysterious journey, and though it is more real now that the house is sold, the boxes are packed, and the whole world knows about it, we STILL don’t have all the answers to the questions waiting to roll off your fingers into the comment box.  I wish we did, because, honestly, they are very good and very important questions to which we would like to have answers.  They are questions that, left unanswered at this point in our journey, have most certainly caused others to question our sanity and good judgment.

The long and short of it is this.  Over the past few months (or years?), we have felt God urging us to “GO.”  But for a long time He never said WHERE or WHAT.  Through a series of circumstances, we discovered a little town called Helena, Alabama that we believed was the place we were to go next.  While we have some personal reasons for this exact location, the biggest reason we chose Helena is the WILD GOOSE  led us there.

Celtic Christians referred to the Holy Spirit as “Ah Geadh-Glas”, or the Wild Goose.  I’m not going into the history or beliefs there (Google it), but we can testify that we have been on a Wild Goose Chase for the last several months.  Some of our questions have been: How…?  When…?  But what if…?  But how…?  We still have lots of hows and what-ifs.

“So what are you going to do?” you are asking.  What is Bill’s job?  What is your job?  Do you have family there?  And to that I say, we are closer to family, and I do have an aunt and uncle there, but we are still chasing the Wild Goose to find out how we will make a living.  Our plan at this time is for the two of us to work together in my web design business.  (Anybody need a website????)  But the truth of the matter is, we don’t know for a fact that the Lord plans for us to do that.  We are still walking in faith, on an invisible bridge, much like the one in Indiana Jones, and we are absolutely 100% depending on God to show us our next step before we take it.  I should be inserting a bunch of scriptures here about the promises of God that we have been reading and CLINGING to over the past few months, but coffee and boxes are calling.  If you’re a believer, you know these scriptures.  If you’re not, message me, because we need to talk about life lived on the Wild Goose chase, and how absolutely, incredibly satisfying, amazing, and breathtaking of a journey that it is.

So…we are moving to Helena, Alabama next week.  We close on our new unbelievable-provision-from-God house (which leaves the most awesome story I need to tell) on the day after we close on this house (which is also another story-teller), and, unless unforeseen circumstances prevent all of this from happening, (and we’ve already lost one nearly-purchased house in the deal), we will have a new, oh-so-Southern address by next Friday.  As for the rest of our plans for our very, frighteningly near future, YOUR GUESS IS AS GOOD AS MINE!!  :D   And I am jump-up-and-down excited about it.

Family Portraits 2010

groupshot

by Jenni Lane Photography

The Night Before School

Tags are trimmed off new clothes and the door lined with shoes.  Packs are stuffed with supplies that have never been used.  Uniforms are laid out with white bobby socks too, and my children are sleeping, I know not what to do.  Should I blog, should I work, should I sit and boo-hoo?  It’s the night before school starts for Thing 1 and Thing 2!

I’ve cried lots of tears getting ready for school.  In the very same moments I’ve thought it was cool.  School is cool and it’s bad, I must be going mad.  I cry when I smile and I laugh when I’m sad.  These kids they just do it, I don’t know what to say.  I love them so much, so much more every day.  But they drive me so crazy!  Get under my skin!  They whine and they fight and they do it again.

“This color-book’s mine!”
“No!  I had it first!”
“Well I have it now!” down the hall voices burst.

“I’m telling mom!”
“Well I’ll tell her too!”
“You can’t have my color-book, or I’ll take it from you!”

How any mom could cry about five days of peace, five days every week with three hours at least, I do not have answers for such silly things.  For sobs and for tears over children with wings.

We guide and we teach and we love and we pray.  We kiss and we hug and we do it all day.  We clean and we wash, we sweep and we fold, we mothers keep house like it never gets old.  We do it all proudly, and we do it with love.  We do it–goodness knows–with help from above.

Now it’s time for Thing 1 and Thing 2 to grow up.  I’ll tie on their sneakers and wish them good luck.  Though I’ll walk them to class on the very first day, the next day it surely won’t happen that way.  I might get a hug with a cheek on my face, but quickly they’ll run–up the sidewalk they’ll race.  That big ole school will swallow them whole, then off I’ll drive, very slowly I’ll roll.  The tears will be flowing as onward I go.  My babies how quickly they managed to grow.

I’ll spend the ride home wiping tears from my face, using every last kleenex that’s found in the place.  Then quietly I’ll open the door of my house; not a child will be stirring, and there best be no mouse.  I’ll enter my home that once I could claim.  I claimed it to be my very own domain.  I gave it up for a while, and I’ll give it up yet, to two wild little monkeys with not a regret.

And then it will hit me.  This house is all mine.  From eight to eleven, I won’t hear a whine.  I’ll clean or I’ll work, or I’ll sit and drink tea, and I’ll do it alone, just the silence and me.  And then they’ll be gone–those tears on my face.  They’ll stop right in their tracks when I reclaim my space.  It will not last long, I’ll be racing the clock, but I’ll cheer and I’ll turn up the music and rock.  I might miss the ‘Movers with their catchy tunes, but that TV is mine, I can watch it till noon.  You know I won’t bother, if you know me at all, but the freedom is there if that TV show calls.

My kids will come back, and I’m so glad they will.  My Thing 1 and Thing 2, how I will miss them still.  They’ll come bearing homework, dirty clothes, hair and shoes, but I’ll grab them up quickly, my Things 1 and 2.  I’ll hug them so tightly they’ll beg I let go, then we’ll snack and we’ll play till the bath water flows.  We’ll brush and we’ll read and I’ll tuck them in bed, as the next day of school they will already dread.  Truthfullly, I probably will dread the day too, I love lazy mornings with Thing 1 and Thing 2.

School is here; summer’s gone with it’s leisurely pace.  I’m both happy and sad with big tears on my face.  Tomorrow is dreadful; tomorrow is grand.  I’ll have time for myself but have no little hands.  I don’t know what I’ll do when to college they go.  I want them with me, but I want them to grow.  I know at my side they will not always stand, but for now I will hold them as long as I can.

© 2009 Heather McKelvey • All Rights Reserved
Reprinting and electronic distribution by permission only

Paper Airplanes

“I’m sorry to tell you this son,” said Bill, “but I’m afraid we’re going to have to save this one for outside only.” I messed up tonight and made THE best paper airplane either Bill or I have ever seen.  I’ve prided myself in my paper airplane crafting expertise for a while now, but this new and improved version of the Heather Kate airplane really soars to the top of the homemade toy charts.

Several months ago Bill complimented my paper airplanes and tried to no avail to make one that could fly higher or farther.  Earlier this week he did come up with a design that had a nice lift on it when we had our contest in the backyard, and I feared that his engineering and math genius would eventually overpower my sheer luck in paper aircrafting. But it was really hard to tell who was the true winner since 20-mile-an-hour wind tends to give copy paper a bit of a bumpy flight.

Tonight, though.  I modified my tried and true design with my favorite part of his design–the angle of the top fold–and I finally gave in and used 2 strategically-placed pieces of tape (which I had scolded him for earlier this week,) and backup, Jack!  The coolest airplane maker of the house just got a whole lot cooler!  (At least in Bill’s eyes.) wink Not only does my plane soar far and long, it goes up, then flies straight for like, ever.  Bill threw it from the kitchen to the other end of the house, and then marked off the distance at 45 feet.  And that was around furniture, lamps, walls, and the still-decorated Christmas tree.  I cannot WAIT to see what that thing does outside.

But the plane was too good.  It was so good that it became a weapon, easily capable of putting out eyes, breaking furniture, and toppling fortresses.  So now I have to work at making bad airplanes, so we can keep them in the house!

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