The Stars In Barb's Eyes

The Cottage Blessing

My husband and I had a camper. We camped all over the place and explored everywhere. Inevitably we would end up driving around some lake or another looking at all the cottages and wishing we could have one.  A cottage on a lake was not in our radar.  Then when my parents needed me everyday and I couldn't earn anything, (because I would never take money from them), we only had my husbands income and a mechanic doesn't make enough for a cottage on a lake.  I would do my ebay selling early in the morning or late at night and to pitch in and pay a utility bill and squeeze in a little of my artwork here and there.  But when you have such a huge and emotional burden of 2 sick peoples lives on your back its hard to relax enough to enjoy doing anything. Not that I am complaining.  If they were here today I would still be taking care of them. I loved them very much,  they took great care of me and I never wanted them to go into a nursing home and they never did. 

So anyway, I was starting to have conversations with God that I felt like I was getting older and my life and dreams were slipping away. I was so torn. I was dedicated to my folks, but I wanted to be an artist, I wanted to live in the country with an art studio on our property. I wanted nature! But again, never wanted mom and dad to die. When would it be MY turn?  And what do you think our Awesome God did? He provided a cottage. Yep. And one on a LAKE in the country! A place where I could get my country fix, be with nature, do my art on weekends and still have my parents.  The best of both worlds!

We were daydreaming about a cottage when we went on a Saturday drive to visit a friends cottage and took a wrong turn going home.  We ended up on a dead end street and I saw a For Sale sign on a cottage. It had a huge deck over looking the lake and no one was there.  I said to Kirk, " lets just go on that deck",  and we did.  We walked out on the deck and looked over the lake and both us of immediately felt burdens fall off our shoulders and peace come over us. So then the rationalization process started. Maybe we could buy a cottage, after all, we had just paid off our house.  Maybe we could afford a little payment, how much was this place anyway?  Nah. get back to reality! Let's go home.  But THEN!  Here comes this cute little old man walking up to us from down the street. Angelo.    "Hi!  This is my nieces cottage, my sister in law passed away and I have the key.  Do you want to see inside?  My son says I shouldn't show it and let the real estate show it. But I have the key. I will go get the key."  Honest, that's almost the exact conversation.  Ok, so I guess we are going to see the inside.  And oh! it was a large open cottage with 3 bedrooms and a large living room, neat a as pin and clean.  Crap!  We loved it. Maybe we could afford it. Maybe I could get up earlier and sell more stuff on ebay. Maybe! maybe!! maybe!!!

And the story has many little miraculous twists and turns that I promise you could only be God.  In the end the little piece of Heaven became ours. We got it for $25,000 UNDER asking price.  We sold our camper and put the $ towards the down payment. The sellers, 4 sisters, sold us ALL the furnishings and every cupboard full for a small cost, very generous people.  They left a scrapbook with pictures of the history of the cottage. 

The first morning I woke up there in Sept. of 2012 the lake was a mirror. I had never seen such a thing before. I was in awe. I later found out that their father loved that mirrored lake.  I know he would have wanted us to have that cottage. That we love it as much as he did. He wanted to retire there but passed away before he could.  I talk to Owen all the time.  I tell him how much I love his cottage and that our family will love and enjoy and take care of it for him.

Footnote:  My stepdaughters live in Northern Michigan. We would only see their families a few times a year. Wouldn'tcha know our cottage is about 20 min to half hour from both. We get to see them all spring, summer and fall. 

GOD IS GOOD!!!

p.s. I constantly take pictures there of what I call GOD'S ARTWORK.  Its all so beautiful!