About a month ago, one of my closest friends had a dream. She wandered down a long, long driveway to find a house for sale. As she explored the property, she decided it was just the right house for us. The wind whispered in the tops of the trees, and it sounded like the word “jubilee.”
In eastern Pennsylvania, we drive down a long, long driveway to explore an old red-brick farmhouse. The owner has left a printout of the home’s history on the desk in the parlor. Reading it, I discover that the man who bought the property about 50 years ago was named Charles Day. I imagine telling my father, Mark Day, and my son, Thaddeus Day, that this house is returning to the family.
We make an offer. We try not to let our hopes rise to impossible heights. We mostly fail.
We walk the quaint downtown just a few miles from the house. Jonathan picks up a flier. In September the local golf and country club is hosting a benefit for children’s food allergy research. It feels like a sign. Your son will be safe here.
That’s when we spot another sign; large, lettered, and solidly real: “Gluten-free Bakery,” it says. We push open the door, hear the jingle of the bell, and wonder, “Gluten-free, maybe, but can they also handle dairy-free?”
We taste the most delicious gluten-free, dairy-free rolls we’ve ever had. Vicky shows me baguettes. Pizza crusts. Tell us they deliver bread to neighborhood restaurants. We can take our boy just down the street for a hamburger with bun. He’s never sat in a restaurant and eaten bread. Never.
Then. Oh, then. I almost cry. Unprompted, Vicky wipes the rice flour from her apron and says, “We can make birthday cakes. Gluten-free, dairy-free. Birthday cakes and cupcakes.”
She doesn’t know about the last cake. All those special ingredients. All the time. For a shared birthday cake that looked lovely and tasted awful. Not even the six-year-old, accustomed to the taste of rice flour and bean flour, liked that cake.
“Where are we?” I ask Jonathan. “What is this place?” Both of us with eyes wide.
It’s time to eat. We decide to skip the hamburger place. We can always go there with the kids, we know. Let’s try the Italian. We’ve never stepped foot in an Italian restaurant as a family, know we never will.
Jonathan opens his menu and says, “Look.”
I stretch my neck, see where he points. “What kind of small town is this? A u-pick apple orchard a few minutes in one direction, a gluten-free bakery a few minutes in the other. What is this place? Heaven on earth for the Purifoys?”
The menu says proudly, “We serve gluten-free pasta!”
Maybe, just maybe, this place is home.
OK, I’m thoroughly blown away – with tears in my eyes. Thad’s earthly heaven has been found!! Hooray.
I can’t wait to visit!! Thank you Lord.
So happy for you, Purifoys! I’m so glad you’ve found such a beautiful home 🙂
Thank you, Jocelyn! You all have a place to stay if you’re ever in the area. 🙂
So beautiful. But I feel left in suspense! Did you get the house? Is it home?
Amy, we think it soon will be! The papers are signed. We’re back in Florida for now, but planning to move and close by the end of the month.
So, I already loved this house for you all, but all of this really rings above and beyond what you could ask or imagine! What a sweet, gluten-free gift!
so. amazing.
i can’t wait to see this place (oh the pictures…!)
Christie, I am SO excited for you and your family. The other night I was thinking about you, your family, and your continued faith in God by allowing yourself to be submitted to His plan for your life during a time that has been so obviously not what you would choose for yourself in the human realm, if that makes sense. Your blogs over the last couple of years have been raw, full of wonderment and questioning, but always honest, hopeful, and beautiful. I know God always makes His best provisions for our lives if we just allow Him to, but I must say that He is showing you how pleased He is with your faithfulness and is loving you extra special by leading you to a home so suited to you where you can write to His glory AND live your life in a town that fits the needs of each member of your family. Blessings to the Purifoys!
Thank you, Sharon! And I’ve only begun to tell the stories of all that God has done, is doing. You are right that God always gives us the best (though maybe not the easiest) if we allow Him to. Faith and life are so much less about effort and striving than I used to think. Maybe you and your family will visit us some day? Hope so!
I’d like to know, too, because a place like that might have, just might have convinced us the east coast could be home.
I greatly look forward to reading your posts written from this beautiful home where y’all snuggle up and get cozy while watching snow fall across a beautiful scene. Reminds me of the pieces of me I left in Eastern PA, and how much like home they feel particularly now that I’m gone. Blessings on your growing family! Love reading your thoughts.
Dear Christie… You may not remember, but I swam with you in the West Edmonton Mall Water park. You’ve come a LONG way… and I would have to say, your Aunt Connie would love to be one of the first visitors to this lovely place. Chances are, she is busy getting the Heavenly tea party ready for all of us. Be blessed. I am SO happy for you!
Your sister in Christ,
Val
Of course, I remember you Val! I’ll never forget that day at the water park. I’ll never forget that you cared for us because you cared for Connie. We have such a reunion to look forward to …
Christie, God is so good. I am blown away by the beauty of this story. Praying that all the other details work out and that this place will truly become your home.
You constantly remind me not to take the simple seemingly nothing pleasures in life for granted. It’s VBS week at church meaning that every night we have 20 minutes to get the kids from daycare, feed them, and get them to church to shake their booty’s. So every night we’ve grabbed cheeseburgers. Yesterday it was just a cheeseburger, cheap, quick nourishment, tonight it will be a reminder not to take our health and day to day blessings for granted.
Thank you for your prayers, Teresa! And it’s true – even a cheeseburger can be so much more than a cheeseburger in the kingdom of God. 🙂 I love that.
I’m enjoying following you on this new leg of your journey, but kinda bummed cause you’re the only other Jax blogger I know of! And a beautiful writer at that. 🙂