When Our Dreams Changed
Eight years ago my wife and I did something most hope for but few get to do. We moved into our dream home.
Our dream home is built of logs and nestled on 5 wooded acres. It is beautiful and quiet.
We designed the house together. We searched through blueprints on the internet. We visited models. And then using a computer program, we positioned every wall and corner and door. We determined how it would look and feel. We picked out everything.
Our home is beautiful. Everyone who sees it tells us so. And we happen to agree.
When people come to visit, they settle in quickly. Even if it is their first time there they feel at home.
And now we are doing something probably even fewer people do. We are selling our dream home.
Our Dream Home
Our Old Dream
Our dream was to live comfortably. To enjoy our abundant life permitted by finishing medical training and starting practice.
Our dream was to send our kids to private schools.
Our dream was to travel all over the world. And to take our kids with us.
Our dream was to fit comfortably in our eight passenger Honda Odyssey Touring.
Our dream was to build a nest egg. To save for an early retirement.
Our dream was to have more time for each other. To have enough energy at night to actually be able to sit and talk. To have enough time to pursue life together.
Our home was an indication that we were well on our way.
Seeing the Dreams of Others
But then something happened. Together we opened our eyes to life outside of our dreams. We started seeing what life is like for others.
We started to understand that for some, their dream is simply to have clean water.
For some, their dream is to have the medicines they need to keep their HIV levels low enough that thy don’t die from AIDS-related complications.
For some, their dream is to have enough food for today.
For some, their dream is to stay warm.
For some, their dream is to be freed from slavery.
And for some children, their dream is to have a family.
When we opened our eyes to see the difference between our dreams and the dreams of others, we had no choice but for our dreams to change.
Our New Dreams
Our new dream is to be adoptive parents.
Our new dream is to be the parents of a child with cancer. To hold his hand after surgery. To take him to get labs drawn to check tumor markers.
Our new dream is to be the parents of a girl with cerebral palsy. To take her to therapy. To have her fitted for braces. To accomodate for her physical needs.
Our new dreams is to be the parents of a boy who almost didn’t have a family. To adopt a teenager. To help him learn English even though it is hard.
Our new dream is to drive a 12 passenger mega-van even though I don’t want to.
Our new dream is to have our kids enrolled in a public school system that can meet their needs.
Our new dream is to live in a home that fits our big family. The woods are gorgeous, but somebody else can have them. Six to seven bedrooms is a dream come true for us now.
When we look at the home we built, we see an incredible place to live. We see beautiful exposed wood grains. We hear the quietness of living on five acres. We see deer grazing just outside the kitchen window. But we don’t see our home.
Letting go of it is easy because our dreams changed.
What do you dream about?
