Maybe Moving....Day 20

The drive home, which we did after our meeting.

So today we met with the realtor we have been speaking with about the possibility of moving into the area.  He is a great and amazing man, who has been so kind to be willing to help us.  This part of our research is simply overwhelming.

The houses are waaaayyy beyond our ability to pay for them.  Rent is three times what we are currently paying and even if we were to get the job we are looking at, I don't know how we can afford housing of any kind.  I am glad we are not looking in San Francisco, but for our budget, we might as well be.  It is so ridiculous, the amount of money it takes to live here.  I have secretly always looked at the salaries here and farther south in our state and just been floored by the amounts, but when I look at housing, I recognize where all that money goes.  We look at the salary and think, ya, we can totally do that!  In fact, we should be able to do that easily!  And then we look at housing and think, heck, no!  You want me to pay how much for what exactly?!!  If we get this job, obtaining affordable housing will be a complete and total miracle!

After meeting with the realtor, my husband just said, even if we get this job, we probably can't take it because we can't afford to live there.  Housing in the more affordable areas, we are told, is gang infested and dangerous.  That is why we eliminated the city where Drew would work in the first place, and decided on the commute.

Look for this one too.

I'm sure I am not alone in wanting a safe and comfortable neighborhood for my children to grow in.  If we were thinking just about Drew and I, we could deal with things a little differently.  But where children are involved, young children, the stakes are higher and the surrounding neighbors more significant.  I would really like to just pack us all up and live somewhere out in the middle of the farm lands of the United States.  I hate the heat and the snow, the tornadoes and the hail, and the flat, flat land would eventually drive me bananas.  But the people are nice.  Life is slower for the most part.  Farm animals don't carry guns, though ranchers do.  But their lives aren't usually about crime and corruption.  They are off fighting big government.

I know, I am just wishing and fantasizing.  They have their own issues, I know.  And it is probably nothing like I am envisioning.

Oh well.  People are just people.  Some have very misguided concepts of life and how it should function and how we should treat one another.  But we all have some very basic needs:  sleep, food, shelter, warmth, safety, and love.  My heart just bleeds for those children who are being forced away from their families and the love of their parents and indoctrinated in the language and behavior of hate and violence---or those who are being used and abused.  In my heart, I want to scoop them up and love them and feed them and give them a safe and happy place to grow and just be a child, and not be subjected to evil and hate and abuse.

I do not have the power to do what my heart desires.  But I do have the power to make life like that for the children who God gives me direct stewardship over.  Those children in my home, they will have those things.  And though we may not always have the food we want to eat, or the clothes we want to wear, we do always have food to eat and clothes to wear.  We are warm.  We are safe.  We are loved.  We are learning and growing.  We are happy, whether we live in the Redwoods or somewhere farther south.  We'll make sure that the things we do have control over protect the children who live here and bless the lives of the children who are near us.  After all, children are an heritage of the Lord------that is how I feel about them and that is how I will treat them!!