Getting what you want..

This story might not be what you expect by the title. Getting what you want almost never comes the way you thought it would. Getting what you want almost always comes with the element of the unexpected! Most certainly, getting what you want comes with a lesson or two!

Here's my story. The thing I wanted most was to move from city living to the country. I have many, many reasons for wanting to move to the country. It had been in my thoughts and prayers for years. And just like most people I had all kinds of obligations and responsibilities that made moving out of reach! I never gave up on my dream of country living, even though it looked impossible. I did the usual bargining with God! I knew I could be and would be better off in the country. If I could just get my chance!

That chance finally came! Nobody could be happier to finally have a dream realized! Yes, moving to the country! This will be great, or so I thought! Everyone would be happy for me, I thought. All of the pieces would just fall in line with my dream! I had been wanting this for so long, surely everything would work out, right?

Wrong! Realizing a dream comes with hard work and sacrifices! The first big hurdle was finding a location! Hubby and I looked high and low for property in the country! Places would either be too expensive for our budget or it wouldn't be big enough for us! At times it was very frustrating! But I wasn't about to give up on my dream! So we kept moving forward in our search for property! Just as we thought we wouldn't find anything, we found a spot that was perfect! It was in a great location, it was in our budget, and it was enough land to fit our needs!

But that's not the end of the story... No happy ending just yet! What we found was undeveloped land! Nothing on it but underbrush and trees! No utilities, no phone line, nothing but land! So our next step after purchasing the land was getting some of it cleared and developed for a homestead! That meant dealing with contractors and those who specialized in land clearing! This was way too much for hubby and I to take on by ourselves. We had to get help! We seen lots of contractors! Until we finally found the right fit for our property and our budget.

We got that done but there was still much more ahead of us! I still had to sell my house in the city and find a new home for our new property! This turned out to be harder than expected! We received help from a real estate agent. At the time it seemed like a good idea. We were busy with our new property and we thought an agent would speed up the process. Boy was we wrong! The agent showed our home many times! Sometimes hubby and I would have to leave our home on a minutes notice so it could be shown to prospective buyers. The offers we were getting was way below what the house was worth. She never could get us an offer worth taking! So we fired her and decided to sell it ourselves with much better results! We found a buyer a week after firing our agent!

Now, we had that behind us! Time to find a new home. We decided to go with a manufactured home. Nowadays manufactured homes are stylish, well built, and most of all less expensive! So off we went in search of the perfect home! We looked everywhere! Then finally we found a new home in our budget. We were excited to have found something we could afford. We had it scheduled to get the new home just days after we closed on our city home! But wait! Unfortunately things didnt go as planned! Although we put money down on the new home and filled out all the paperwork, there was a problem! We didn't know there was a problem until after we closed on our city home!

So there we were stuck! We were living in a hotel with all of our belongings in storage! Here's what happened. The place where we bought the manufactured home had sold our house to someone else! That's not all! They did the ole bait and switch on us. They tried to sell us another more expensive home! I probably don't have to tell you how upset we were! I was horrified! On top of all they did, they didn't want to give our money back! The nerve! That ended up being a big deal just getting our down payment back! So here we were living in a hotel (which was costly), with no home! Lord, what do we do now? We rolled up our sleeves and got to work trying desperately to find a home quickly! It took us four (4) weeks to find another home that was in our budget! We ended up with a refurbished home! It was nicely remodeled and in our budget! Finally we had a place to call home!

The story continues because remember we had no utilities and we also needed a septic system. After we had the home delivered, we had to start the timely process of dealing with contractors once again. It took us another month to get all utilities and septic done! The process took so long because of some contractors not showing up or sometimes they would quote one price but then change the price when it came time to do the work! Thankfully we finally got all that behind us! All that work on the land, the home, plus utilities left us broke! It took every dime we had to just get our new place liveable! Finally, dreamed realized, right?

Wrong again! Once we did finally move in the problems kept coming! Hubby had problems finding employment, I shut my accounting business down because of the move and now I didnt have the money to start it back up, hell, we were having trouble just keeping food on the table and bills paid! But I was here! Dream realized! Lots of hard work and setbacks but we made it! In times like this one would think that family and friends would rally with us, maybe lending a helping hand? Nope, nobody showed up! No one asked if we needed anything! That was the biggest unexpected surprise of all!

Now for the happy ending! Despite all the upset and difficulty we faced, we are still here! We have managed to make it through some of the most difficult times in our lives! But you know what? All this has made us stronger! Hubby and I have been married for twenty two (22) years! All of this have made us closer than ever! Our love and dedication to each other is stronger! I love him more than I ever have! Together we managed to weather the storm and come out on the other side, we are actually better and stronger from this whole experience! None of what happened to us made us run or give up!

Don't get me wrong, we still have plenty yet to do. The work isn't over by a long shot. But we discovered that we could withstand lots more than we thought we could! Its been a year now! Yes, I got what I wanted most, but life asked me if I was willing to pay the price? Life asked me how bad did I want my dream realized! I answered by not giving up, I answered by pushing forward despite the difficulties! Then life rewarded me by giving me the peace and happiness I had longed for! I am so thankful for our new place and our new life, even though it came in a very unexpected way!