How It All Began

Our journey to southwestern Tennessee started long before any boxes were packed and U-Haul trucks were loaded. Many “wouldn’t it be nice to…” conversations were had before we finally realized that we don’t have to ask permission to pursue our dreams. Strange to think that as a late30 something and a late 40 something we would be feeling like that, but we had never known anyone who actually followed their dreams in such a drastic way. Could we find a new church? New friends? Actually run a farm? What about our girls who had lived in this house virtually their whole lives? Could I really stop working and be a stay-at-home mom? What about our family in other states (that we are now farther from)? Our oldest was starting high school, is this really the best time to move to a new state? Which state is the best for our family? How do you pick a town to live in? The list went on and on and on. However, our lists of questions were quickly overpowered by God’s presence in everything we were concerned about.

We started making a list of wants and needs and even “wouldn’t that be cool“. Here are a few things on each of those lists:

-We need: a guest room, a 3rd bathroom, decent internet, at least 5 acres, off the road, space for a woodworking shop

-We would like (want): fencing, other structures like a barn, a good size kitchen, bigger laundry room, pantry, trees

-We would love to have (“wouldn’t that be cool”): full, usable structures, a red barn, good fencing, a blackberry bush (throw back to my grandparent’s farm), oldest daught dream room in the attic, youngest in the basement

In the fall of 2020 Brant and I (Amy) traveled to Nashville for a conference. I already knew this was the prettiest state I’d ever driven through. (quick aside: Trees, trees and more trees! When you grow up in the TX Panhandle, the trees of Tennessee will absolutely floor you.) We decided to take a little longer and drive around SW TN as we had kinda decided already that we really like the values and politics (and no state income tax!) in TN. SW TN wasn’t as hilly or rocky as the rest of the state so it seems like a better fit for what we wanted to do. We drove across 412 and back across 64. We stopped in little towns, found locals in coffee shops, and made more lists such as: Where is the nearest Walmart? Sam’s? Airport? The types of things I knew I would need later when we moved. We found a realtor who was honest on the first phone call and he worked with us for the next 9 months looking for our perfect place. (spoiler: The area we were looking at is not the area we are living in, close, but not quite)

Fast forward to June of 2021, we were going on a family vacation to several state parks in TN to show the girls why we fell in love with this state. While we were here we were going to look at a few houses as well. We didn’t tell our neighbors about moving, just going on vacation. Realtor tells us: One just came on the market 2 days ago, but isn’t in the counties you were wanting. Thought maybe you’d want to look anyways. Brant sent it to me, first picture is a red barn! Yes, we want to look at it.

House 1: the scorpion house—yes, there were scorpions. End of story.

House 2: looks cool, needs lot of work, has a cemetery (still in use!!) in the backyard. That’s a big fat no.

House 3: looks like a movie set, yellow house set up on the hill, giant trees, good fencing, and a RED BARN!!! This is where we are going to live. We knew it when we first drove up. We take a tour and it hits every single thing on every single list. Including my oldest daughter’s dream room (upstairs, with sloped ceilings and big window at the end) and youngest in the basement. Only God could do that. We got home from that trip and our neighbor said that her parents wanted to buy our house—any chance we were interested in selling? Ummmm, yes actually. Look at you God. Then they accept our offer (which was below asking, and we got their zero turn mower). Wow God, you just keep showing off.

The girls and I (and Diesel our chocolate lab) moved at the end of August 2021 and Brant joined us in September. To name everything that God orchestrated during that time would take a long time and I am sure I would miss few things, but our questions and yearnings for the simpler things brought us here. To a dreamy homestead in a tiny town on a street that will make you grin every time you say it.