Twins!

(For regular readers, this post has nothing to do with Meagan's upcoming delivery!  She and Nathan have one baby coming - Noah.) 


Renovation - the word for the day!

After several years of dreaming.  After multiple pictures pulled from magazines.  After measuring and re-measuring.  After having the job quoted three times.  (Thanks, Raymond!)  After talking it nearly to DEATH...................we've entered in to a renovation project.

Scary territory to say the least!

I've talked about closing in the back patio for years.  First, I wanted a sun room.  Like the one I sat on in Indiana.  (The speaker's cabin had a lovely sun room complete with a wicker swing in the corner.  The view?  Why the lake, of course!)

Then, I pondered making it a screened room to simply avoid the bugs.  Fay helped talk me out of that.  "Just put in windows from the beginning" she said.  "You'll be glad you did."

Finally it hit me one night at family dinner.  We needed to turn the patio into a DINING ROOM!!!

I nurtured that dream for many months until it faded to only a whisper in my heart.  "Probably never going to actually happen," I told myself.  "But it was a great thought."

That's when I stumbled on my special kiss from heaven.

While waiting for a sales person to help us with a purchase for the church, I wandered over to the discount area.  Tucked back away from view I found The Twins.  Two BEAUTIFUL, top of the line, double insulated, windows.  The original cost was $300.00 for each.  Because the order hadn't been picked up they were marked down to $60.48!

"You WILL have your room, Sheri."  It was like the Lord stood there whispering to me.  "These windows are just the beginning!"

The twins sat in our garage for almost a year. A little sign of promise.  A little encouragement to keep dreaming.

Then my dad came for a visit and caught sight of my dream, "Close in the patio.  I'll help."  (Actually, I think he got squished while trying to enjoy family dinner with us all crowded around the table.  Sometimes a visual is a great thing!)

My dream had included the hope of a small bay window over-looking our koi pond.  But when Raymond came to look at the situation, he suggested a much bigger bay window for one entire side of the patio.  That way I'll have a window seat ready for sunrise watching and grandbaby seating.

Finally, my dining room table that seats eight could stay open all the time.  (That table is itself an answered prayer.  All the years we lived in an RV, Frank sat on a folding stool at the head of our little table.  I started then praying for a table that would seat our entire family and the three sons who would eventually join us.)

Then Ed came.  We started drawing up specific plans.  We talked about ALL the elements needed to make this happen.  (Many more than just the twins!)

Frank and I spent an entire day searching out good prices on flooring and another door.  I'm gonna tell you right now - America has entirely too many choices available for the decorating challenged among us!  That would be me.

I've gleaned advice from long-time renovators and decorators like Lynn and Paul, Judy and Bill, Wendy.  Truth is, I've pretty much talked to everyone who visited; excluding the mailman.

Just now as I sat enjoying the low humidity and birds singing and colors swimming across the sky, I suddenly got afraid.

"When you close this in, you won't feel the breeze like you do now.  When that wall goes up, you won't see your gardenia bush or the neighbor's crepe myrtle trees blooming.  You're going to have to view the sunrise through blinds on windows.  Did you think of all that?"

Isn't it interesting how boldly darkness comes to trouble our thoughts and diminish our dreams?

It's true that I will have to release those pleasures.  And I'll miss them, no doubt about it.

Putting The Twins in place will definitely change things.  And I'll be sad to lose the use of our patio. But the change will add value.  This change will add more than it will take away. 

And then I rehearsed for the 100th time how adorable all our grandbabies will be when we push that big table over to the bay window and cram their little selves together on "Noni's Special Seat."

I listened with my heart for the laughter that will surely roll through the room.  I visualized smiles and tears and stories and dreams to be shared over irrelevant meals.  I felt the warmth of hands grasping for the prayer of thanks. 

In order to embrace the dream, I must release the past.  Even the good things of the past.
 
Great lesson from a set of twins on a bright Saturday morning.



*All the people mentioned are dear friends from our church family!  What a gift!