It’s been 415 days since the for sale sign was posted in front of our house.
We’ve stopped looking for our next house. Our realtor no longer shows us perspective new homes until we have the “Sold” sign in our yard to make it worth the realtor’s time. There are sold signs going up everywhere around us, everywhere but our front lawn.
Preparing for an Open House has become second nature to our a family. The routine of getting ready as familiar to us as weekly chores.
Each day that passes becomes another “X” on our calendar. We never thought it would take this long to move on from this place.
We never intended to stay this long. Nine years ago we moved to a house on a busy street with a promise that within five to seven years we’d move to the house we’d stay in until we were too old to live there anymore. For all these years, I’ve held on to the hope we’d sell our current home and move back to a place where we could be closer to our family.
It’s hard to keep hope from slipping through your fingers after you’ve been holding on to it for so long. It’s comes and goes with every open house and every marked off day without an offer. It brings doubts and questions like, “What’s wrong with this house that no one wants to buy it?”
People ask, “What will you do if your house doesn’t sell?” and you think to yourself if that is even an option to consider.
There are so many of us who become content where we are and never want to leave. We gain comfort in the familiar. We shut or doors on the world. We don’t understand why anyone else would feel the need to move, or change, or leave memories behind.
Then there are those of us who can’t stay in one place for too long. They are still seeking that one place they feel they can call home.
Either way, we go forth. There is no turning back, but what happens when you throw open your door in wait for change and nothing happens?
415 days and still waiting, still hoping, and still dreaming of moving on from one street and journeying down another. I know I should stop counting. If only I were more patient. God waits for us for almost a lifetime to open our hearts to Him, while here I am staring at a door that already leads me into an open house.
The first step to moving on is stop counting.
