I Think I Left My Heart In Tennessee

Wow, my last post was a bit of a downer. Possibly losing the house, head colds, no A/C in the camper… kind of bleak. The overall update is that we are all healthy, the A/C unit has been replaced, and we are now back in New York as of a few days ago. As far as the house goes, our realtor left us on a hopeful note last Friday, saying that he would ask the sellers if they would consider letting us rent. Talk about the absolute last resort.

Now, after a full week of waiting, praying, hoping, and occasionally panicking, I am absolutely thrilled to say that we are going to end up in the house after all! The sellers agreed to let us rent while my husband builds up a work history with his new job that will be satisfactory to the bank, and then we will purchase it. There are some conditions, of course, so we still need to get things squared away legally and logistically before we head back down. But just the fact that they are letting us do this is such a huge relief. We will probably need to live in the camper again for a couple weeks, and can’t move in by July 1st like we were anticipating, but we’ll figure it out. Shout out to my wonderful husband, who has been my rock during this stress-filled week and has kept me grounded when the unknowns felt so overwhelming.

In the meantime, we are visiting with our family and friends for a few days, and then will pack up all our stuff that’s in storage here and take it back to Tennessee with us. We moved away just two months ago, but coming back already feels strange. Upstate New York has always been my home. This is where I was born and raised, got married, had kids, bought a house; all my biggest life events have happened here. And yet, I keep getting this feeling of wanting to “go home”. I guess it took coming back to realize that home isn’t here anymore. My heart is in Tennessee. I don’t know how it happened so fast, and certainly wasn’t expecting to feel this way so soon, but I absolutely love it there. It’s amazing how those gorgeous mountains have already worked their way into my soul and I can’t wait to get back to them. Knowing that we still have our dream- a house and piece of land- waiting for us when we get back makes me so excited, and knowing we came so close to losing it makes it a million times more special.

Now it’s time to soak up this time with all our loved ones, visit some of the local places we wish we could bring with us (Stewart’s and Wegmans, I’m looking at you!), and once we get our lease agreement in place, we’ll head back home. Then it’s just a matter of a couple weeks until we get into our house. I’m so thankful to have this to look forward to again.