Guess What I Got For My Birthday?!

Blogged on Monday, August 25th, 2008 by Rachael. Filed in Blog365, Family, Philosophical.

Really, it’s not just for me, it’s for all of us.  But it made my birthday the best one I’ve ever had, hands down.

A few weeks ago when my Mamow asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I thought I’d be funny and say ‘A HOUSE!’ because c’mon, that’s just as silly as telling someone you’d like to them to purchase you a brand new Maserati as a birthday gift.  Unless you’re Paris Hilton, I guess, but around here we give each other significantly smaller gifts than cars and houses, which I think is pretty normal.

We really do want to move, this trailer park is getting more and more frustrating to live in.  It’s not the rent - we can afford it.  It’s not really even the trailer - it’s livable, and we have learned to compensate for not having as much room.  It’s the neighbors and the area.  I never feel like I can go for a walk without being accompanied by Troy, simply because the teenagers (AND the adults) who live here think it’s really funny to yell insults or throw things.  Better people than me could handle this, but I really can’t.  I can’t even let the kids play outside with them being either stared at (in a creepy way) by neighbors, or being hollered at by my crazy-cat-lady neighbor who often forgets that screeching the f-word at small children is SO not socially acceptable.

We looked for other places to rent.  I looked through the newspaper listings, craigslist postings, and called on signs I saw at roadsides.  All the places I found were either too small, too expensive, or in a worse neighborhood than this one.

My Mamow and Papow have been upset over our living situation for a while, even though, while we kind of dislike it ourselves, we’ve done our best NOT to be cranky over it.  It does absolutely no good to hate where you’re living, because it’s that much more difficult to be thankful or content.  I’ve been thankful for the air conditioning, the working heater, the hot water to take showers and wash dishes.  I’ve been thankful for the very fact that we’ve had a roof over our heads and places to sleep comfortably.

Last week, there was a house up for auction south of here, in a much better area, and my grandparents went to see it.  Mamow was so excited about it she tripped all over herself telling me about it - four bedrooms, hardwood floors! A yard! A living room AND a family room!  Papow told me not to get my hopes up, which I already knew not to do, and said he was going to bid on it at auction the next day.

He won the bid, the bank accepted his bid (which is important, because the bank can always turn their nose up if they don’t like how much you offered), and they’ll be closing on it in a few weeks.  And we’ll be moving.  To a new house in Grand Blanc.  To a house with enough room for everyone PLUS room for a schoolroom/office.  To a neighborhood where the kids can ride their bikes safely, and the little ones can play outside.  I can hardly absorb this, this infinite kindness, this opportunity to live somewhere better, a place we can dig in and stay for a good long while.

I stole that photo off the auctioneer’s website - I’ll post photos of my own once I take them. SQUEE!!

My grandparents love me, and my family, SO MUCH, that they gave me what I wanted most for my birthday. A house. Sure, we’ll be paying for it - we like to do things the right way, and we’ll be paying a fair rent - but that’s not hardly the point, is it? The point is that I am loved more than I can ever really understand, and good things happen to me that I don’t even know how to pay back in kind.

My hope is that as the years go by, I will find people to help and to love just as I have been helped and loved, with no strings attached, for no other reason than that it was the right thing to do.