SS Blog Challenge #14: There's No Place Like Home!

This week tell us about the places you've called home. Have you lived in one place all your life? Tell us about it and why you've chosen to stay there. Have you lived in many places? Where have you lived and what have you done to make each place feel like home? What has been your favorite place to live and why?

I have lived in lots of places in my 33 years. But the funny thing is, that I grew up in the same house, where I lived until leaving for college at age 18. My parents actually lived in the half a double next door and moved to the other side when I was about a year old. Rock Street in the Bloody 5th Ward of Shamokin was home for me for 18 years full-time, and then during a summer break or two, when I wasn't off traveling the world!

I called Nyack, NY, home for about 8 years. I went to Nyack College and Alliance Theological Seminary there. I lived in the girls dorm, Christie Hall, for 3 1/2 years, took a live-in nanny position for 1/2 a year in New City, NY, and then lived in 3 different apartments after Scot and I got married. And oh, they were interesting! Our first apartment was off-campus in the "hood." heehee! We had interesting neighbors, drug busts, cockroaches...wasn't the nicest place we've ever lived, but was all we could afford at that moment in our lives! We then moved to seminary housing. The neighbors improved, but the roaches did not. I started to think it was us! But when we moved into our 3rd apartment, we were roach free! That was cause for great rejoicing! Two of our children were born while we were living in those 2 apartments. I have a special connection to those places.

We moved back to Shamokin in 2001, where we stayed for a little over 3 years. We lived in a house owned by our church. We had a little yard and hideous green carpeting! And we lived exactly between my parents and my in-laws! It was a wonderful location!

Finally, we moved to Jerusalem. We came here in August of 2004. Since coming, we've lived in 3 apartments. The first move was our choice, and the 2nd apartment was perfect! Unfortunately, the landlady decided she wanted to do something different and we had to find a new place. God has provided a beautiful new home with a nice enclosed garden for the kids to play in, lots of space...little extra blessings. I still feel sad about having to leave the 2nd apartment. Being forced out is never a pleasant experience.

Those are all the places that I've called home for extended periods of time. But I've lived summers in Gabon, Central Africa, Washington, DC, where I worked as a tour guide with Tourmobile Sightseeing, a month in Wheaton, IL while we studied at a linguistics school in 2004, a few weeks in Mali, West Africa and Croatia. I wouldn't call all of those places home, though I think I always bring things with me that make any place feel like home.

As for what makes a place feel like home? Of course, it's family. I can call any where home if Scot and the kids are by my side. Our last apartment we painted, which was the first time in our lives we were able to do that. That made it really feel like it was ours! And pictures on the walls. We hang lots of pictures of our kids up, as well as pictures of scenery and things we enjoy. And it would never feel like home if I didn't have all my clutter! I complain about it sometimes, but it is part of me. Clutter comes with the territory, I'm afraid. And honestly, the clutter makes a place feel like it belongs to me!

My favorite place that I've lived? That's a hard question to answer. Every time we move, we do so because God is calling us to something new. Not so much to individual apartments (though I've always seen His hand working to provide us great places to live), but the big moves we've made have all been as a result of much prayer and knowing he was calling us to go. I loved living in Shamokin as an adult. As a teen I swore I'd never go back! But there was something so comforting and so familiar about everything, it was easy to return to our childhood hometown. And it was close to family and extended family, and our supporting church family~~we couldn't have asked for more during that time in our lives.

But God gave us a clear call to Palestine. There was no doubt about it. And I love it here. Honestly. Some days are hard. Some days are lonely. Some days I would hop on the next flight out of here if I could. But most days are full of precious blessings! Most days I feel blessed to call Jerusalem home. Now if I could just get Arabic, we'd be all set!

I love these questions. It helps me take account of how blessed I am. I'm so grateful to be following God's call. I wouldn't want to be living anywhere else!