Patience

Those who know me know that I am not a particularly patient person. I am not the type of person that wants to sit around and wait for much of anything - when I want something, I want it sooner rather than later. A perfect example of this impatience is the process we went through in buying this house, which some people are still surprised to hear took a grueling 5 months to close on. For anyone that was not a part of the process, I assure you I was ridiculously impatient (just ask my realtor). Seeing as this is my first home, maybe the upfront process I went about wasn't too out of the ordinary... but something tells me it was -

- Decide I don't want to live in condo anymore, half-jokingly tell Dan we should buy a house
- Look at houses online for a few weeks, narrow choices down drastically due to budget, spot a picture of 906 with little information and decide it is THE house for us
- Go on house visits to 4 houses, 2 of which we can't afford, one of which is 906 - decide (again) that it is THE house for us
- Check listings again the very next day, see massive price drop on 906, confirm that it is THE house for us
- Convince Dan that the house is perfect for us
- Put in an offer within 24 hours

Now again, this could be totally normal... but the HGTV-watching part of me is pretty positive that our situation was far from ordinary.

So it is with me - often times, I don't tend to do things the "normal" way. Maybe that's why I went away to school for a year and a half only to come home and THEN find my passion at a community college. Maybe that's why I quit an amazing job to go toy around in Hawaii for a month and "discover" myself. Maybe that's why it took me 8 months to realize Dan was perfect for me, only to then immediately become so convinced of it that there was no turning back. Maybe that's why we moved in together in such a short time... and that is certainly why we decided to buy a house together before a wedding is even in the works. Because, my friends, that is what works for us, and the un-normal part of it all is more true to my character than any cookie-cutter life would be. No matter how many times I told myself as a teenager that I would be married by 25 (ha!) or live alone in the city for a year (haha!) or run a marathon by 30 (hahah... still working on that one)... it's just not me.

So, how is any of this at all relevant? Because sometimes, choices are questioned, and the inquiring lingers, causing those horrible unnecessary "what ifs" that people like me agonize over. And because, this is the beginning of me working to move past that.

Ecclesiastes 7:8 - The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.

Could it be put any more simply?

Look what those crazy beginning 5 months brought us - we have a wonderful home that we have built together, and every day it gets better than the last. Those beginning uncertain times of our relationship have turned into amazing appreciation for each other...

...and we are nowhere near the end. Our lives together are just beginning. And to that, I plan to start being a little more patient.