Core Truths

  This. This is the place where we were led. This is the house we will call home. When we took our quick trip to North Carolina in October, our plan really and truly was only to see the fall foliage and we thought it would be a good time to scope out towns. We wanted to see if there was a town or place or area that felt like a good fit so we could one day hone in on finding our next home. We had a few towns on our radar and had been casually checking houses for sale in these places. But we made a deal that on this trip there would be no realtor and no seeing houses. We wanted to enjoy the scenery and we knew we could always look at houses later. Much later is what we thought. But there was this one house. Since the summer, Brandon and I both had been looking on various realty sites. I mean, not much else to do on a Friday night, right? While Brandon would scope out just about anything that hit the market, I would always ask, “What about the white house with the circle drive? Is it ...

One of my favorite memories from when Brandon and I were dating and engaged was driving around, eating Blizzards from Diary Queen, and dreaming. We would dream out loud with each other for hours and hours. We would say all of the things we want, all of the things we want to do, all of the things we want to be. At some point, we stopped. At some point, it’s like we accepted some reality of our lives and ourselves and we stopped dreaming. Or we at least stopped saying it out loud. When we started looking at North Carolina as a place we want to be some day, all of that changed. It’s like we had new life breathed into us. If we were going to make this major change, we wanted to make sure we ended up with what we wanted, able to do the things we want to do, to become the people we want to be. It seems unbelievable some of the things on our list. I think there was even a time I said something like, “this doesn’t actually exist.” Brandon has always dreamed of owning a historic house. We know ...

If you want to do things you have never done before, you sometimes have to do things you have never done before. This is what was playing over and over again in my head and in my heart less than two months ago. Brandon and I had been talking about how much we hoped to one day relocate to the Smoky Mountain area. While we felt like that decision could be months or years down the road, we were eager to hone in on some places. We knew if we were ever going to find our next hometown, we were going to have to set our eyes on some of the towns we had only driven through or seen in pictures. We also dreamed about seeing this region during the fall. For years we talked about just taking a quick trip there, but that quick trip never worked out. Anytime we would look at our fall calendars, every single weekend was spoken for every single time. There were football commitments and cheer commitments and band commitments. There were days marked out for school and there were days marked out for work...

We shared recently that our family is headed to the mountains of North Carolina. And like any other good story, there’s a backstory... Two-and-a-half years ago, our family visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the first time. When we booked our trip, we had no idea this area would be written on our hearts forever. When we left our mountain cabin at the end of our first trip there, we felt as if a piece of our hearts stayed behind. We knew then that we would eventually end up there, even though we didn’t know when and we didn’t know how. There was no way to know just how things would play out. Since then, we have visited the area four other times and have left feeling more connected with each visit. We have dreamed about property in the mountains that would allow the kids to roam and explore. We have dreamed about hiking and waterfalls and all four seasons. We have dreamed about a forever home close enough to the National Park where we could explore anytime we’d like. Our ...