Early Dreams
Before Nic and I were married, we dreamed of living off grid in a straw bale house. Nic began working in home construction, and we planed the home he would build for us many times over. We kept our eye open for land. Nic wanted 50 acres. I thought 5 would be plenty. What was the point of owning a huge plot of land if we weren’t going to do anything with it? We would often drive around the backroads of Russell looking. Nic was born and raised in our little town, and my family moved here when I was 9. We’ve always loved Russell, and knew it was where we wanted to raise our family.
We were married in 2006, and 14 months later our first baby, William, arrived. We were living in Ottawa at the time. The desire to move back home was on the rise. 19 months later our daughter Eden arrived, and the desire was stronger still. In the fall of 2009 we bought an old fixer upper in Embrun. We had a 5 year plan: fix up the house, sell the house, move to our dream house!
The 5 year plan turned into a 7 year plan. During that time we welcomed two more beautiful baby boys, Tobin, and then Micah, into our lives.
Found and Lost
In the fall of 2012 we found what we thought was our dream property. It was 25 acres of beauty! It had a charming little 2 bedroom log house on it. It was going to be tight, but we figured Nic could build an addition. I pictured my children running through the fields. I anticipated the adventures they would have in the 6 acres of forest. I imagined our family and friends gathered around a campfire under the weeping willows. But most of all, I felt that Nic and I were being drawn there to fulfill a calling we had long felt on our lives. I believed that it was to be a place of rest and refuge, a place of physical and spiritual nourishment.
We spent 3 years keeping an eye on that property. It was on and off the market several times. When we first found it, we could afford what it was worth, but not what the sellers were asking. But when it was re-listed at a fair price in March 2015, we were in a different situation — we could no longer afford it. Miracles were unfolding before us, however, and money became available to us. And then, at the very last minute, when we thought the time for us to own this place had come, it was sold to someone else. We were devastated.
Slow to Love Again
We were slow to love again. In the summer we started looking at a few properties, mostly sent to us by friends who knew our story. Nothing felt the same. Everything fell flat.
One day, our good friends, Sue and Jim, mentioned that their neighbours planned on putting their 20 acre property up for sale at some point in the next 3 years. I started to notice this property on Route 400 when I’d drive by. I liked that it was in Russell. I liked that it was far off the road. It looked like something I could maybe come to love. Nic wasn’t so convinced.
At the end of September 2015, Sue called us to tell us that the owners were going to be putting the place on the market the following week. and that if we wanted to go see it before then, she could arrange for that to happen.
More Than We Could Have Ever Hoped or Imagined!
As soon as I walked in the house, I knew I wanted to live here. It was more than we could have ever hoped or imagined! Everything that was missing from the first property we had found was here. The house had the extra bedrooms and bathroom we felt we needed for our growing family. There was a workshop for Nic, and a quonset that could easily be used as a barn. We also knew that the neighbours were great! And though we had doubted we would ever find a property more beautiful than the first we had fallen in love with, we felt we had!
We received possession of our dream home, on March 3, 2016. I walked around our house and property for months not feeling like it was really real. You see, we shouldn’t be here. We could not afford to be here. In human terms, it is impossible that we are here. But we were shown “nothing will be impossible with God.” I believe we are only here because we are meant to be here. This place was prepared for us. It was prepared for us to share with you.
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