Straw-bale Houses, Wind Chargers and Solar Panels, Oh, My! Our Desires for our Family's Future....

I know the title of this post may seem a little strange, but if you have spent any time with Sam or I, you know its not really that weird.  Right now we do live in a motor home, but we hope to get out of debt as soon as possible and we are totally trusting God to lead us and bless our faithfulness and submission in that.  Now, we have had many people ask us where we are going to live and what we'll do for work and all that.  Here's what we are dreaming right now.  Please remember that we are totally being open to what God wants to do in our lives, so if our "plans" don't come to fruition, we believe that God has something better for us down the road!

We talked about several things.  First, where would we live.  To be honest, we don't really know.  We've loved California because we really enjoy all of the places you can go and all the things available to do.  The people are very nonchalant and we pretty much like that.  There are also some pretty amazing churches there, too.  We really liked Norman, OK, as well.  It is very much a college town and has that feel to it.  We have some very special friends there (Hollah, Matt, Kristina and Luke!!)and its very laid back.  (We like that style of living if you haven't figured that out yet ;)  We would still like to make it to the Oregon/Washington state region as well as Alaska.  We hope God will bless us in an opportunity to go up there for work.  Who knows, we may end up waaaaay up there!  So, as you can see we haven't received that memo yet.  We're just gonna relax until God says, "Go!"

As for land and a house....there are several ideas that we have come up with.  Sam has always thought it would be really neat to renovate an old church and turn it into a house.  We've also talked at length about building a straw-bale house.  I know it sounds strange, but its not a new technique, they are super sturdy (just as much or more than a regular frame house) and the insulation factor is literally off the chart!  Plus, you could have window seats in every window and the decorating possibilities are endless.  I encourage you to google straw-bale houses and see what you find.  Mighty interesting reading!  We also would like to have lots of acreage.  At least 50 or so.  (There's a plan involved in having that much land...)

So, what's the plan for all that land?  Well, we've talked about possibly doing an rv park on some of it to start out with.  Seeing as how we've seen several in action over the last year and a half, I think we'd have a pretty good shot of doing well.  Also, I've always wanted to have a bed and breakfast. My sister Sara has that dream too, so maybe it would work out as a partnership.  That would be sooooo fun!!!   That would also be put on the land...  It could possibly incorporate the straw-bale house or renovation of an old building ideas.  Another thing we would like to do is have a youth camp.  Cabins, lake, fun stuff to do, ropes course, campfires, the works!  Not only that, but we want to be able to provide it free to those churches or youth members that can't afford it.  Wouldn't that be amazing?!?!?!  Also, while we are at it, why not throw in an area for pastors and missionaries and their families to come to be rejuvenated?  For FREE!  Another thing that would be neat to see happen is a petting zoo/working farm.  Sam wants camels and I want alpacas and pigmy ponies.  Of course, we'd need goats, chickens, a couple of milking cows, regular sized horses, some potbelly pigs, etc.  Kids could totally come and get hands on experience on a farm.... oh, yeah, I can see it now.  (I think we're going to need to make duplicates of ourselves to make all of this work!  hahahahahaha)

Last for now, but not least:  the solar panels and wind chargers.  We would like to be off the grid as it were.  We would like to make our place as "green" as possible, too.  There are lots of things in this area that we are exploring and researching.  We'll have to keep you updated.

Yep, we have lots of dreams and don't know how much, if any, of it we are gonna see happen, but what fun stuff to dream about, right?

So what do you guys think?  Let us know.  I think this is interesting stuff to talk about.