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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Neighbors

As you know, we just moved into a new neighborhood but we are no longer the newbies on our street. The house across the street had been for sale ever since we moved in and it finally sold. Tuesday I saw two huge moving trucks out front and texted Jon that we had new neighbors. He responded, "old? young? kids?" knowing that we would love a set of 20 something kid-less or new parent neighbors :-). I was outside pulling weeds when I noticed something and texted Jon back...

"I haven't seem them yet but I think I know the answer. The moving trucks say Heavenly Care- specializing in Senior moves"

Lol! Quite the opposite of what we were hoping for but we will manage. I'd never heard of a company that specializes in senior moves? The guys looked like any other movers I'd seen. We still haven't seen the new family but Jon said we can adopt them as our Texas grandparents.

So it got me thinking about neighbors. For the longest time Jon and I prayed for the Lord to send us believers. People we share the same faith with but are true friends. And the Lord answered those prayers at our old house. We were so blessed to live a wonderful, Christ loving couple and watch them raise their beautiful baby boy (cuteness can be found here). Before we moved, we told our neighbors how they were a gift from God to us. They gave us hope that we CAN find people who we can go to dinner with, watch movies, joke with, and pray with. What a great thing it was to be able to walk next door and ask for prayer. Or ask them questions about how they've endured many more years of marriage than we have, with Christ as the center. I know, I know, we didn't move across the country, just 20 minutes away, but we were sad to leave such an encouraging couple that has become close to our hearts. There is so much power in prayer and this is only 1 of the many examples of how ours have been answered.

So now that we are in our new neighborhood, we are praying for the same thing. Nothing will ever replace our first neighbors because they have some BIG shoes to fill but God led us to this place and I know he is going to do great things for us in this neighborhood, in this home, and in our family. We've had the privilege of meeting so many new families and friends and are hoping to make lasting relationships over the years. 

I am in no way saying we don't want to live near non-believers because as a Christian, my heart is so open and full, loving people of all beliefs. And God loves all people, even if those who do not follow Him.
 via

It's just crazy to think how one day someone can jump into your life and change it for good. And that's how life works. Now it hasn't always been fun and rainbows for us with neighbors...haha. We've had our share of odd balls, especially living in Central Austin so we think we found the needle in the haystack. 

To lighten things up, please share your craziest neighbor story! At our old house, there was a house on the end of the street that had a free organic farm. We never found out what exactly they do but they'd always offer us a free garden, free food, and invite us to their 'earth honoring ceremonies'. The funniest time was when we were on a walk with Ernie and one of the guys came out on his front porch in tiny jean shorts playing his ukulele. Keep Austin Weird!!!!


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23 comments:

Lisa @ MMT said...

I totally understand your neighbor concern. We just moved into our new home a month ago and we are praying that we find a good group of neighbors to be friends with. Our son is three and it would be nice to find some playmates for him. At our last apartment we found a wonderful young couple who had a little boy Es age and they played all the time! Hoping we find that again.

As far as bad neighbors, we have had our share! One apartment we lived in the neighbors upstairs were so loud! They would practically pound their feet when they walked and would be up all night and day. We moved out and found out they started going around the whole building asking people if they could use their bathroom and stealing all their medications. Which explains why they were always up... Crazy stuff!

Lauren Talon said...

We used to live on the top floor of an old century house...read house with thin walls. The guy that lived below us was a bit of a weirdo. He (for no reason whatsoever) had switched his routine so that he was awake all night and slept through the day. He didn't have a job so I'm not sure why he did this. It wouldn't have mattered to me except that he tended to play loud music at night. One day when he was feeling particularly friendly I guess, he mentioned that I could call him at any time and tell him that his music was too loud and he'd turn it down, no questions asked. Here I was thinking he was really thoughtful and nice. Well the next night around 1 in the morning his music was too loud so I called and he screamed a bunch of obscenities at me and hung up. We didn't talk after that. :S Neighbours, they can be great or they can be awful lol.

jessi bridges said...

That would be so awesome! We've never had Christian neighbors. They've always been crazy weird. In San Diego, the lady downstairs was evicted for selling drugs. And the new guy that moved in partied until like 2 am every night and I called the cops on numerous occasions. The first place we lived in TX, our downstairs neighbors moved in at 2 am. Who does that?!? They woke all of us up, including the baby so my husband went outside to "talk" to them. I guess that's just apartment living for ya!

Becky Borgman said...

We live next to an older couple and they are some of the best neighbors we have ever had! They are believers as well and look after us like we are their own. I know when we have children they will be like grandparents to them. So don't worry about all of your neighbors not being "20 somethings"...God blesses us with people of all ages! :-)

Mikalah said...

so this is my first time commenting, but I just had to add a crazy neighbor story. We have a 60 year old lady who lives next door to us who is originally from Eastern Europe. She is very sweet, but a little kooky. One morning at 4:00 am she rang our doorbell and left a note saying "You took my garbage can, you silly neighbors." Yikes! That was more than a little wierd!

Hall Around Texas said...

Such a great post!!

Cortney said...

We are by far the youngest couple on our street. We've loved getting to sit and talk with our older neighbors though, most of our neighbors are at home all day so that's always a relief to me, I know our house will be safe! However one of our neighbors who we have never got to know came and started chewing us out for watering our yard because "the farmers and the animals need that water, not our grass"...awkward!!!

Unknown said...

When I was a little girl, I lived in a house in a VERY rural part of California. A woman moved into the house above ours(probably 2-3 acres away), but she had had renters in the house before she moved in. The renters LOVED our dog, so Chloe (The dog) would go up and visit that house. They'd give her treats, invite her in... Anyway, the renters were GREAT.
Pamela, on the other hand... She hated Chloe. She came down to our house a number of times and threatened to take Chloe to the pound if she didn't stay off her land. She even insulted my parents for having so many kids. Called my dad a pig.... She was an awful lady.
Anyway, one day, at 6 years old, we found Chloe dead on our porch. To this day, I think that lady poisoned her... She was a great, healthy dog one day, and gone the next.
That lady was PSYCHO...
Morgan
toughlaces.blogspot.com
(We miss you Chloe! You were the best dog EVER... <3 )

Amanda said...

I'll keep my fingers crossed that some wonderful neighbors arrive for you both! And maybe a playmate for Ernie man :)

Kelly { MessyDirtyHair } said...

i totally know what youre saying. at least you may have gotten some older neighbors who will be quiet instead of some loud annoying kids who throw parties all the time. your blog is really cute, i found it though caseys sponsor list. new follower! love the mustache theme!

xx

Unknown said...

Bahaha! That is too funny. I think I might be the weird neighbor, haha. I make up crazy stories about all my neighbors in my head. Then I talk to them and see that they're perfectly normal. I have watched disturbia too many times.

Heather @ Finding Beauty in the Ordinary said...

Love this post! And a free organic farm?! Bwhahhaa!

Krista said...

What a thoughtful post, it would be kinda neat if you could meet your potential neighbors before purchasing your home. Then again maybe not ;)

When we lived in the south we lived in an apartment complex close to a local college so there were always students making a major racket but watcha' going to do? We are blessed with really good neighbors now :)

Unknown said...

I've got a couple neighbor stories but just TODAY my brother moved into his new place in Nashville and the neighbor asked him if he had his rolling papers....my brother is all his sheltered life didn't know what those were and had to ask :) I'm glad he didn't know what they were at least, ha! Both he's already got some classy neighbors....oh boy! Oh and I don't know if you know my story with Lincoln but I was in the hospital for 8+ weeks before he was born and during that time my sister came to live with us (or at our house at least, I wasn't there) and so all our neighbors knew was that they hadn't seen me around in a very long time and that Tyler had this new girl living with him! lol! And to their surprise I came home with a baby! We were quite the talk of the neighborhood for that summer! :)

Nicole @ the style hatch said...

I loved this post! In our last house we lived on a cul de sac with quite the crowd. But the house right next to us was an elderly lady that would look out her window with binoculars anytime we would do anything- if we were in the dining room with the curtains open, there she was with her binoculars. She would call my husband at work every time someone pulled into our driveway- which could be good, I guess! haha, I do miss her!

Rebekah said...

Back when we lived in College Station, the neighbor in our duplex could have been on that show Hoarders. The only reason why she may have disqualified was because it would have been a health hazard for the camera crew. This girl was a SLOB! We would check in on her two weimeraners on weekends that she'd be out of town, and the place was beyond filthy. She always left her backdoor wide open so that her dogs could come and go as they pleased. With the amount of stuff in her house, who knows what critters decided to make a home in the house. She was really nice, but...ewwwww!

Anonymous said...

Haha oh Austin :)

My sister and I lived in a complex on 45th and Guadalupe which I loved. But there was a 1 bedroom apartment next to us where three older men lived. And they never greeted or talked to us but would blast rock music, take walks around our open-air floor and just sit outside and watch people swim in the pool. They were our next door creepers.

Amanda M. said...

We used to have a neighbor across the street from us who was a stay at home mom to one little girl. I think by the end of the day, she was longing for adult conversation.....she would walk out of her house right as I came home from work. EVERY DAY! She would talk my ears off and all I wanted to do was go inside and take my shoes off! It almost felt a little stalker-ish, especially when she sent my an email one day telling me that my husband had a brake light out on his car. Thank goodness she has since moved on and the new neighbors are less nosey! ;)

Ms. Chianne said...

The place I'm living now is next to a camp ground and my friends and I were wanting to check it out and possibly camp out there one night....turns out it's a nudist camp ground haha! So my neighbors are nude campers lol!

Girls Love Fried Pickles said...

I guess you could say we were the bad neighbors. The people next door to us many years ago while building there house, my husband used to throw dog poop on their roof because for the longest time we had so much privacy. They turned out to be nice. But I bet the roof stunk.

Claire Beeks said...

Crazy neighbor stories...where do I begin? Back home, we used to have neighbors who were "Amish"? I guess? They went through a phase where they juiced everything, wore doilies on their heads and wore skirts. It was a phase, but it was hilarious.

More recently, I've had a neighbor who takes in addicts (got bless her heart) and she is a DJ at Seattle's members-only goth bar. Oh, and she used to be be a ballerina. She's basically awesome :)

Good luck, I'm sure the new grandparents can teach ya'll a thing or two hehe.

Carita said...

I just want to say that you guys are TOO KIND! We don't know if we'll ever have neighbors as wonderful as you guys were. Everyday, we miss you guys, and that feeling is only growing more with each day that passes. :( Praying for you all in your new hood!!

Babs said...

When I was a kid, my neighbors had grandkids our age who would constantly set us up. We'd stay on our side of the fence because they were bullies, but they'd throw their toys over into our backyard and our neighbor would yell at my Mom and accuse us of stealing. I think that was the beginning of the end of us wanting to be friends with neighbors. It was a good call because the neighbors we got when we were teens were a little insane. One night we heard them partying, then screaming, then a gun shot. The next morning we discovered that they'd broken into our van and stole the radio. Then there were the other neighbors who beat up my brother, glued our mailbox and my Dad went over and the parent's screamed at their kid for terrorizing us, apologized and said they understood if we had to call the police, which I thought was very big of them. So we've always been suspicious of neighbors, which is horrible because like you, I am aching to find Christ-centered neighbors so we can watch out for each other, pray for each other grow together and celebrate each other's victorys. Who knows, someday...

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