Elijah Bought a HOUSE, so We Had a Lemonade Stand.

Yesterday morning, at 9AM, Elijah Montgomery closed on a house. His very first house.

It was just last week that I woke up to a phone call around 7:30AM from Elijah telling me that his Dad thinks he might have found the house. I got ready in less than ten minutes & he quickly came over & drove us there. We met his parents at the house & pulled on the little gravel driveway. Ironically, it was a house I passed every morning on my way to school 6th-12th grade. Most mornings I gave it a glance as I thought about all of the potential beauty it held. We walked through the house & gave it a good look. The inside was all redone. Built in 1922. Beautiful old doors. Tall ceilings. Big windows. Original light fixtures. Old fireplaces. Big backyard with mature trees. Ah! You can see how I felt about it…

That morning after we left the house, I remember we did nothing all day except be together. We took walks & ran pointless errands, just trying to wrap our minds around the fact that we may have just toured our future house. At the same time, we didn’t want to get our hopes up if nothing worked out. (That didn’t keep us from driving by it every time we got in our cars…ha!)

Day by day, Elijah kept calling me with good news. “The offer is in.” “The offer was accepted.” “The inspection passed.” “The termite letter came back clear.” Our hearts couldn’t contain the joy. & then, one day, it was official. Elijah got the HOUSE!

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More than just a future house for us, this house was a dream of his- a dream he had been working towards since we first met. Getting a front row seat to watch his dream unfold was half the excitement.

& of course the other exciting part is, this house will be our home come May 2021 and we both couldn’t be more THRILLED!! Eeeeeeeeeek.

The plan is for him to live there with a roommate this next year. We will fix the exterior of the house up over our engagement & I’ll move in after our wedding!

So, back to yesterday morning. As I was getting ready for him to pick me up & take me to the closing…a thought came to me. I wanted to plan some way that we could invite all our people over to see the house. Sharing excitements in life with people is the best & I wanted to immediately warm up his new house with our favorite humans.

What better way than a lemonade stand?

After the closing, we picked up his little sister, Emmy, & ran to Kroger. We spent a total of $11 on lemonade mix & lemons, and then ran to my house to grab a little table & some baskets. My mom offered to bring the cups. I grabbed an old piece of wood & some white acrylic paint for a sign.

When we got back to the new house, I got my watercolors & painted up a little invitation. We snapped a picture in the front yard & sat on the porch to start sending it out to friends.

From 3-6, in between doing yard work, our people stopped by, grabbed a cup of lemonade, & went on mini tours.

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It was just the sweetest. & so simple. I was reminded once again that we were each created for community.

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That whole day, me & Elijah kept looking at each other & reminding ourselves of what we were doing…working in the yard of our future home, inviting all the people we love to come & join us.

These are the moments I’m certain I dreamed of once.

What are simple ways you have celebrated joys in your life with the people you love? I’d love to hear them!

Daisy