The Welcome Sign

We had been driving for what seemed like an endless amount of time. In reality is was 5 days. We quite often had recounted the task that the pioneers had taken on. The monumental task of leaving every convenience and family known to head west on a hope that they could carve a better life for not only themselves but future generations. Along the way, Kyle and I would sometimes turn to one another and ask, "Who does this?" We were however, very thankful that our journey took less than a week, compared to the pioneer's months of travel.

Suddenly there it was... Butterflies rolled in my stomach as the ranch came into view. In the distance it looked small but very neat. We tried to guess which building was our house. I made Kyle stop when we came to the driveway. I needed time to take it all in... and take some pictures. First I took a picture of the ranch sign. I turned around to take another from a different angle and there in front of me was our mailbox, with big white letters spelling GLEASON on the side. That mailbox may as well have had a big WELCOME sign on it. I felt tears of joy well up in my eyes. This was really where we were going to call home. To top it off we had our own mail box. The people here were expecting us! It felt good to be expected, and perhaps even wanted.

We continued down the drive, (which turned out to be 1.2miles long.) Kyle was taking everything in, the calving pens, the cows, the barns, pastures, and fences. I wanted to see one thing - home. We had seen pictures of the house and ranch from e-mails back and forth with the H's over the past weeks. But here it was in real life, and I thought it looked better than ginger bread.

We pulled up in front of the house and took it in for a moment. The house was a lovely peachy cream ranch style. The yard was fenced and had the cutest little archway and gate with a iron horse hanging and below it said WELCOME. There was no one in sight, we could not see the H's house. There was a note on the door that said; "Kyle, go on in we will be down after lunch."

It felt a little strange to walk into the house unescorted. I don't think you would ever do that in Michigan. We also, really wanted to meet the H's and maybe ask just one more time, "Are you sure its us you want?"

Curiosity, though could not hold us back for long, Shawn and I had to go in. As we walked around I began to get excited, we would have a mudroom! we would have a huge kitchen! Oh, the office was so cute. A built in china hutch! Look at all the huge windows! Two bedrooms - with closets! The sun room will be so nice. Look a basement! Storage, storage, storage, cupboards and more cupboards! Over all, I don't think square footage on the main floor was much bigger than our old house. But, all the storage and the way the home was laid out made me feel like we were moving into a mansion.

Pretty soon Mr. H came buzzing down the hill on his quad. It was so good to put a face with a name. His face was so kind and welcoming. He remarked and apologized that the house was not in better shape, but we could see no flaw. It was beautiful!

Within moments we where cleaning and unloading boxes. Moving in was in full swing. Colton was bouncing from room to room. Kyle and Ron set to figuring out the manly job of starting a fire. The next couple of days of moving in and unpacking where such a blur. I know I couldn't have done it without Shawn's help, that is certain.