some surprises along the way …

hello, friends.  i’m sure you all know about life being unexpected and bringing you surprises that make you say, “huh?”  that’s how it’s been for us.  here are a few reasons why.

• we moved to our lakehouse in lake lemon, a beautiful area.  it was to be our rental for several months until we looked into buying a home in the spring.  i didn’t feel right there though.  perhaps because it was a guest rental with furniture set up and it just didn’t feel like home.  not in the least.  plus, our phones had absolutely no service out there, and there was no house phone, no internet either.  this can be fine, of course, but lately, i want to be connected to the world via phone and internet.  i couldn’t envision myself there for several months.  we decided to leave the morning after we arrived.
• we moved back into jeremy’s mom’s house and stumbled onto a potentially beautiful house for sale in her neighborhood.  just $26,000.  this lead us to another home i absolutely absolutely fell in love.  $44,000, asking price.  with the help of marilyn, jeremy’s mom, and his uncle, who has a real estate license, we began looking into options and are in the midst of making an offer.  we are very excited.  but …
• at luna’s check up yesterday, we found out luna has lead in her blood.  she is at 4.9, and at 5 doctors begin monitoring once a month.  we have to return in a month to see where it’s at.  i was very upset.  jeremy was wonderful at helping calm my frayed nerves regarding luna.  we went to the grocery store and stocked up on foods that are supposed to help flush it out of her system.  we made a call to an excellent homeopathic doctor in the area.  and … all of this led us to inspect jeremy’s mom’s home with a small lead testing kit we bought at menard’s.  what we found so far isn’t good and this is why …
• we found out that the walls in the basement have painting with lead.  not good.  a large, large shelf that covers the wall in one room where luna has slept and played and where we stored our things also has lead paint.  so not good.  it is also chipping paint.  this morning a lovely volunteer is coming to inspect both this home (built in 1908) and the home we’re looking into buying (built in 1918).  we are hoping it goes well, though renovations dealing with lead can be incredibly expensive (up towards $20,000 and more).  the offer we’ll make on this new home will be determined by the lead factor.  so …
• luna and i left marilyn’s home yesterday and we are now staying with jeremy’s brother, sister-in-law, and niece.  they have been very kind to take us in at the last minute.  it is strange, being shuffled from home-to-home lately, and i’m realizing just how much i want a home of my own, for my family.  and …
• jeremy’s at his mom’s house painting all the walls in the basement.  he’s been amazing through all of this, and so so determined to take care of this matter.  his mother has also been incredibly supportive and has helped us research.  we will also be getting the water tested for lead, as basement pipes built back in the earlier 1900s could have lead.  this has been …
• overwhelming.  but this morning i’m looking at it all with perspective.  or trying to.  we discovered all of this — the elevated levels of lead in luna’s blood — at the right time, because we can do something about it, take steps to ensure that it lowers.  i’m very grateful it didn’t reach 10, which is when they need to be treated.  to top all of this, i also found out that …
• the college class i took in the late summer, a 100-level, introductory art history course, will not count towards my MFA, which means that i’m still 2 credits shy of graduating.  this was a setback i was not anticipating and so am wondering what i should do now.  the department no longer covers tuition so i would have to pay for independent study of two credits or a graduate-level course of three credits in the spring.  $2000+.  this is a lot of money for us at the time, and though jeremy supports me in this, i’m beginning to wonder why the universe keeps sending me on these detour journeys.  any ideas?  my thesis advisor, alyce miller, has been absolutely lovely in all of this, and so very supportive.  i know that without her i would not be completing my degree, as i wouldn’t have any other fiction instructors to ask to be on my committee (the other two fiction advisors dropped out of my committee because of a departmental disagreement involving my gentler method of grading).

so, it’s been quite the week, and i’m sitting here now, at someone else’s home, feeling surprisingly okay about it because i suppose i know this is all leading me somewhere.  where, i’m not sure yet, and that’s okay.  but until i discover where, i’ll be looking around with a curious expression on my face, much like alice in wonderland.  this world is so, so surprising.  dealing with change is such a special thing, isn’t it?  we can fight it, or we can embrace it and learn to … go with it.  and i guess that’s where i’m at.  i’m going with it.  i’m letting this experience lead me instead of trying to lead it.

*the photo above was taken by jeremy on his new vibrant phone.  we (jeremy, luna, marilyn, and i) are at a coffee shop in linton, indiana.  for those of you who don’t know linton or indiana, linton is a small, small town about an hour and a half away from bloomington.  this coffee shop is a gem tucked in the middle of a town that is just beginning to come alive.  it’s precious, in a way, seeing this coffee shop there for this reason — because of its unexpected brightness, its vitality, its energy.  it speaks of promise for the rest of the town.  we are currently living in bloomfield, which is about a fifteen or twenty minute drive away from linton.

*jeremy took the photo below of luna and i love her big smile in this, the mess of food.  i’ve learned, in all of this, just how important family is, and how i’d gladly trade the opportunity to buy a home for a rental in a second, anything so my little girl is safe.

much love to you, my friends.  i will be stopping by your blogs soon.

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