Home is...

So the search is on for our next home.
Not by our choosing but due to the choices of others, our landlord, we are on the move again. Twenty six years of marriage and our next home will be our sixth if you don't include temporary stays with in laws and travels overseas. I'm guessing that for those in the armed forces or other such transient jobs that's not much, but for us....
My childhood consisted of three family homes. The first, rented, where I was born and have no memory of. The second also rented but this one I have fond memories of. Finally the home where we lived from when I was seven until I left to be married at twenty two. The home where my parents still live.

In fact, when we bought our first home, after we were married, it was at the other end of the very same street. We lived there until our second child was about two then after a short stay with the in laws took off to the other side of the world for three months. We returned to a rental property in the same suburb, then found a fixer upper a few streets away which we purchased. We lived there for about five years.
Our next move was to build, up the hill, in a neighboring suburb. We lasted about five years until circumstances required that we sell up. We chose to move the furthest I had ever lived from home, in a rural suburb, twenty minutes from my childhood home where we have rented two and a half acres for the last three years.

I love the animals I have accumulated, the neighbors I have befriended, the country atmosphere and would be happy to stay. This is not to be. The owners have sold the property and we currently have ninetyish days to find the next home in our journey.
And now... the choices and lack of the same are daunting. To buy or rent? This area or further away? The financial constraints? The family constraints? The work constraints? The pet constraints?
Do we rent something nicer than we could afford to buy or buy something within our budget that needs work? Will we have time to live the rural lifestyle if we are working harder to afford it? How far is too far from our teenagers education, friends and interests. It's not the norm in our culture to not own your home. Nor is it usual to send your teenagers to live somewhere else for their tertiary education.
How do we still fulfill the responsibilities to family if we move further away just by choice? Not because our employment demands it. Are we foolish to give up the privileges of family and church to move to somewhere that we would prefer to live.
The fear - that we end up in a place that we are not happy with, does not suit us or somehow ties us down if other opportunities arise; that we take a rental property only to miss out on the 'perfect' place to buy; that we can't find what we want; that we disadvantage our kids or our parents; that we end up old and broke and homeless.
The hope - that God knows who we are and what we need; that He can do miracles (like taking away the anxiety); that property, possessions and placement are not the most important part of our lives.
The immediate choices need to be made within the next ninety days or less...
Right now - be content in the moment. Step out as opportunity arises and be patient when doors close.