There's No Place Like Home

Farm Girl Love.  That pretty much sums it up.  I’ve always been a small town girl at heart.  And after nearly 15 years away from my hometown, we’re coming full circle and moving back.  So, like any good 21^st century gal, I’m starting a blog to document the transition.  Mostly, I plan for this to be a foodie and parenting blog, but to kick it off, I thought I’d tell you the story about how we ended up back where it all began…

My family, circa 1986 (I'm in the front right)

I grew up on a farm.  My dad operates a farm with his brothers, growing crops like corn, soybeans, and sugar beets.  As far as I’m concerned, I had an idyllic childhood.  I went to a public school where my graduating class was a whopping 36 students.  We had a chance to be well-rounded in sports, the arts, and more because when your school is that small, everyone has to participate or the activity doesn’t exist.  An inkling of talent could make you feel like a superstar.  It was a great place to grow up.

My husband and I became smitten with each other in high school.  We started dating a month before my 16^th birthday.  To ask me out, he dropped a neatly folded piece of paper into my lap that said"Will you go out with me?"  Classic. He was a year ahead of me in school, and we grew up in the same small town church.  College came, and we parted ways for a bit – he went to a tiny Christian college down in Tennesee, while I went to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where there were more people living in my dorm during my freshman year of college than there were in my hometown.  After a year of saying we could “date other people,” we both admitted we really just wanted to be together.  So we dated long distance through our college years, which seemed hard at the time, but in retrospect was for the best - we got a chance to grow up separately and come back together knowing that our grown-up versions were still compatible. 

Fast forward ten years.   Five moves, three houses, two kids, nine different jobs between the two of us…  Life in suburbia has been good to us - great friendships, cushy corporate jobs, and lots of important life lessons learned along the way.  We’ve enjoyed life in the big city, but have always been nostalgic about home.  In November, my husband was “reorganized” out of a job for the second time in two years, and we started thinking and praying about what was next.  After a series of metaphorical doors were slammed shut in quite spectacular ways, we found ourselves wondering if God had a bigger shift in life direction in mind for us. 

There had been an open-ended offer from my dad for years to come farming.  Hubby's family also has land that is rented out, with relationships and finances that need to be managed by someone in the next generation.  We’d always loved home but could never imagine ourselves living there again.  Something special about this point in time made us reconsider that.  After praying about it, we noticed a strange and dramatic attitude shift.  Within the course of a few weeks, we found our attitudes shifting from no way to not just being less resistant but actually desiring to make the move.  We talked it over with both sets of parents and told them we were going to do it.  The day after we gave my dad our final decision, Hubby’s former boss called to tell him that, through a series of people moving around, his old job was available again and was his for the taking.  A week prior to this conversation, we would have gratefully accepted.  But when the offer came, we said “Thanks, but no thanks!”  Gotta love God's timing. :)

Transitioning back to small town life will undoubtedly come with its challenges.  But I know that will be tampered by the steady undercurrent of good-hearted people who take care of each other, a way of life that is slower, though certainly not simple.  This is a unique chance for us to continue the legacy of prior generations, provide a nurturing place for our kids to grow up, and enjoy a nice life for ourselves in the meantime.  It’s the best of all worlds, and it just makes sense.

Since after all…

There’s no place like home.