Home of the Brave
I’ve lived in Canada my whole life. It’s been a wonderful homeland and I feel downright blessed to have landed in the awesome Canadian family that I did. A mere 34 years ago I married my terrific American born husband. He came to Canada initially of his own accord so I can’t really help the fact that he ended up falling for me and staying here all these years. He would, in fact, say that it has been a very lovely place to live and raise a family so everything is fine. As a bonus, we have lived most of those 34 years within a stone’s throw of the US border making it as easy as it could have been to head south to the land of the brave, and the free (I’ll learn it).
So, it is quite interesting that right at this very moment, I’m awaiting a call that will say I can go to the US Consulate General in Montreal to pick up my American visa (shock!). Why I must go 4,495 kms to Montreal is a ridiculous other story! Anyways, yes, it’s true. My husband and I bought a house in Maple Falls, WA back in February and are hoping to move there before too long. By the way, doesn’t “Maple Falls” sound splendid? And isn’t the word “Maple” in the name such a nice tribute to the fact that I’m still a loyal Canadian?
Anyhoo, back to 1984 for a moment… From the beginning of our marriage, hubby and I have always longed to live in the country. We’ve never thought it would bother us to drive farther to Costco or not have neighbours looking into our yard/windows. There was also the dream that had been planted in both of us to have a restful place for people to come and restore a little balance in their lives. He went to grad school, we got jobs, we had children and life got busy. And of course, there was the small matter of the money it takes to buy an acreage close enough to commute to a job to make the money. Our lives were full and busy and far from restful. In fact, on several occasions I took myself away to restful places to get a break from my regular life. It was inspiring and filled me up to head back to the real world.
For the past couple of years our realtor friend has been showing us properties that we thought might get us to that idea of idyllica. Unfortunately, prices kept going up and we were getting farther away both financially and geographically from where we wanted to be. Then hubby struck on the idea of looking south of the border in his “homeland”. Admittedly, I wasn’t jumping right on the bandwagon and thought of all the reasons it would be a challenge (and health care). Slowly, however, I began to see that husband being American had made this more of an opportunity than the obstacles it presented. The right and lovely place was found, details fell into place in a heavenly way and we are now the proud owners of 5 acres and a house that I can’t live in yet.
BUT, we’re getting close! I have received notice that I am now “documentarily qualified” and I’m awaiting a date for my trip to multicultural, artsy, poutine laden Montreal.
If you’re still reading this backstory, first of all “thank you for your patience”. Secondly, the bottom line is that we feel God leading in this venture which we have decided to call “Bloom Wild”. It’s a place where we hope others will join us to take a breath, dream of new things and go wild with the life that you’ve been given.