A Season of Change: Part 2

 

Part 2
A Season of Change: A New Chapter in Our Life

After making our list of what we wanted we finally honed in on Northern California. It still has a bit of that Pacific Northwest feel to it but with more sunshine and less rain. It put us closer to some of our grandchildren and that was a plus as well. Our adult children are spread out and much of our van travels were to see them and our grandchildren.

We traveled to several places in Northern California. Drove through many small towns to get a feel for the area. Having children and grandchildren in Sacramento was also a plus. As we age we knew being around family is a good thing. So while not a small town, we chose Sacramento as our eventual landing spot.

A couple years ago we began getting rid of unwanted items. Hubby worked on painting areas of the outside of the house and we sorted through many years of belongings. 

Each item showing a mini snapshot of the life that had been. And now it was time to make many hard decisions. Sorting and tossing and making decisions on what to keep and what to let go of is emotionally draining. At least it was for me. But little by little the house was emptying out. It did feel good to declutter, clear out unwanted items and downsize.

As the year, 2026, started we felt this may be the year to sell. 

In May I contacted a realtor and she came and we settled on a price and she pointed out a few things that still needed to be done.

(View from my mother in laws hospital room. She loved living near the water and loved sailing.) 

As we were making progress towards this we got the phone call that my sweet mother in law, who had been suffering from dementia for several years, fell and broke her hip. She broke it very badly. The hospital said there was nothing they could do for her. She was too fragile (she was 90 years old) to be able to handle any type of surgery. She was also in a lot of pain. They put her on hospice in the hospital.

We drove up to spend time with my father in law as he sat by her bedside. We went up to say our goodbyes. Many months prior she had stopped being able to recognize us or know who we were. 

Dementia is a horrible disease. Year by year you watch your loved one slowly fade away. You grieve a little more after every visit. We said our goodbyes and drove home. She peacefully passed away two days later. She was in the arms of Jesus and no longer confused and suffering. 

We had spent a lot of time over the years seeing my mother in law and helping wherever we could. I know part of the reason we were not ready to leave the area is we wanted to be close by in case my father in law needed us to help with her in any way. When my mother in law passed away it gave us the peace to know she would no longer need us.

We also felt incredible peace from the Lord that this was the time to move. In all the years we had been praying about where to go and when, we always would come back to knowing the time had not come yet. But now we both knew it was time. The Lord clearly laid that on our hearts.

The first of June, 2026, we put our home and property on the market. We had discussed that if the property didn't sell we would take it off the market in the fall and wait again until next spring. Imagine our shock when we had an offer in one week. It was crazy to us that it happened so fast. We hardly had time to think. We accepted the offer and then had 45 days to pack up our belongings and be out of the house.

Again we looked at this as the Lord opening doors and more confirmation that the time had come.

However we had no house we were moving into! We had faith that the Lord would open those doors when the time was right.

Check out Part 3 to see how the Lord did indeed open more doors for us!!