The House that Blesses (Part 1)

Home is where there heart is... you've heard this saying right? It has always been one of my top priorities to make my home a place where friends, guests, and especially my family know that they are accepted and welcomed. It is a safe place away from the chaos of the world.

We have moved many times as a family. In each new area we found a place to call home. Home is very important to a family and I totally took on the challenge of decorating and tweeking it into a place that was cozy, warm and welcoming....

The home is the woman's domain. I have always thought of my home as a reflection of me. After-all I am the one who designs, chooses the colors, picks the furniture, fills each room with a unique sense of character. I am also the cook in our home. I relish the opportunity to prepare foods that pamper my family and guests. I go to great lengths to choose healthy, yet yummy foods that will draw the crowd to the table. I have many pictures in my mind of gatherings around the dinner table. Laughter, stories and sharing from the heart most often was shared around the table.

As I am typing my description of home I can imagine what some might be thinking ... What century are you from girl? ... Get with the times! No way Hozea ... I feel so much has been lost in our society by minimizing the role of mother and wife. Do you get the significance that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world? A woman who takes the role of wife and mother seriously has the power to be the rock her husband turns to ... she holds the power to raise strong, well adjusted children who will go out and change their world. We all can testify to the flip side of this ... mother's who spit kids out .. but have no time for them. Mother's and Father's so wrapped up in themselves that the children grow up unnoticed, unloved and alone. These children grow to be adults who often search their whole lives for someone to love them. That love should begin in the home and come from parents who are tuned in to them. Okay so I got sidetracked a bit but I feel passionately about the role of parents in children's lives. Now let's trek back to the Home.

I believe that a home needs to be tended to and loved. Creating warmth, personality, beauty and comfort will make it a safe place that calls out to your family ... come home, rest and be loved. The world can be hard and treat you bad ... but at the end of the day my family finds refuge in a place we call home.

I truly love my home; have you picked that up yet? In fact many days I have pulled out of the driveway while looking at my house ... with nostalgia squeezing at my heart I'll quietly say "goodbye house, I'll see you soon." Each of my homes hold so many stories and if those walls could talk ... my what stories you would hear.

A month before my husband and I got married I moved into our first home. It was really a campus apartment, but I treated it with all the care I would give to a home that I owned. Why, well the one I loved was coming to live with me there. This home was conveniently located On-Campus ... amongst other newlywed apartments stood our abode. Gary continued his studies and I went to work to put hubby through his last year.

This was a house of firsts. The first, and I hope only, time to live with a man in the sacred bonds of matrimony ... the first meal I ever prepared for my husband, the first time I entertained my friends (I was so proud to have them visit and spoil them with dinners and delectable deserts.) Great conversation, secrets and laughter was shared in that first home. It was the first time I cooked for my in-laws .. it was a flop! I was so embarrassed when we went to carve the chicken ... well I thought it was a chicken .. you could hardly cut the tough stewing hen I had bought. How was I to know hens were tough birds? It was the first place that I ever made my own ..

In our first home where, as newlyweds, Gary and I took baby-steps in learning how to love each other. We had our moments .... believe me. We had been two young and selfish singles with stars in our eyes ... It was in this first house we had to learn how to share many things including, ideas, procedures, housekeeping, responsibilities, the blending of two very different family systems and stupid stuff like who would decide which way to roll the toilet paper :) ... it was a process which included some pretty passionate arguments!  In fact one day, the man who lived upstairs told Gary ... ya know sound travels really well through this place. YIKES ... we were red faced and forced to manage our young tempers better.

I worked full time to put hubby through his last year of college. I managed the house, cleaned it, polished it, planned meals and cooked. I cooked all day on most Saturdays and popped the meals I created into the freezer. I'd call Gary when I left work so he could put them in the oven. When I walked through the door delicious aromas would greet my hungry stomach.

In this house Gary completed his Bachelors Degree with honors. I gladly worked and took care of the house because I loved him and wanted to see him succeed and do well in school. He so appreciated my decision to put my education on hold and put him through that last year. Many nights he held a study group in our house. On those nights I would drift off to sleep listening to the hum of their intellectual conversations..

Our first home was definitely a time of growing up together and supporting each other. It was so nice to know we never had to part again.

After College Gary was called to be a Youth and Music Pastor to a Church in Ohio. A sweet couple from the Church offered their upstairs apartment for rent. We started out with no children ... yet our home was always filled. It was filled with a variety of very interesting teenagers. We opened our home and our hearts to the youth group. The teens were free to come over any time and they knew they would always be welcomed.

Although this home was not big ... it was plenty big to pack 10 to 20 kids in on any given night. I remember the upstairs house fondly. The bright kitchen and homey living room. The large bedroom with three windows. I picked out my first pair of curtains and matching bedspread in this upstairs home.

I remember the tall boy with the Afro and winsome smile, the handsome boy with the problem so personal ... yet he entrusted it to us, the athletic girl with the knockout smile and sincere heart, the adorable couple whose innocent love made me smile, the senior Pastor's son who wanted to be cool without rocking the boat of his father's house, the trouble making girl who would push all your buttons just to prove she was unlovable... didn't work... :) It was a house filled with love and a safe place where our teens could hang out, study the Bible, ask their questions, fight (yeah we had a big one one night), celebrate birthdays together and so much more.

The creation and delivery of our first child, a boy, happened in that first house. He was a beautiful child with lots of dark curly hair. He had mischievous big brown eyes and a contagious smile. Daniel loved the teens and the teens loved him right back. At any given moment I would find him in the arms of one of our youth smiling, kissing or hugging their necks. Such wonderful memories were made in that Upstairs House.