If you haven’t been following since the beginning, or maybe you have been, but you’ve lost count of all “the ones,” you may not have realized but this one isn’t the first one we thought was “the one.” My dad was really starting to enjoy it I think. In the loving and supportive way only your dad can, he’d say things like, “oh THIS is ‘the one,’ eh?” You know, like you used to say to your friend from college that brought a new girl home every couple of weeks or so, all in love and everything, saying he was “going to marry this one,” until, you know, they got to know each other. It was kinda like that.
But really. How could I help it? I’ve been writing things like, “Future home of Owl Moon Farm?” for…oh…2 years? We really thought we found “the one” in February of this year. So sure was I that I told EVERYONE about it, before we even made an offer. We’re talking months of build-up before even getting the process started. Our initial offer was not accepted, and neither was our 2nd or our 3rd. In fact, we negotiated for MONTHS before finally deciding to walk away. {Honestly, though, the sellers were kinda insane, and the real estate agent involved (bless his heart) only made matters worse.} It was a nasty breakup. There were tears.
Then there were other ones. Pictures shared on Facebook, addresses typed into Google Maps to see how far we’d all be driving for Christmas…
Maybe we were dating? Maybe we were test driving? You can’t just take home the first one you try on, right??? So ya, no shame here. I’d rather have a few close ones on the way to “the one” – it makes the celebration at the finish line that much sweeter.
The biggest cliché you’ve ever heard (if you’ve ever been farm-hunting) is “The right one will come along.” (Sound familiar?) Anyway, it’s totally true. I mean it. Totally. True. Patience and trust and determination. Every wrong one is one less wrong one you have to see before finding the right one. I would go home after a weekend of looking, without finding, with the saddest, most pathetic, dejected feeling of failure you can imagine. I would sometimes even consider (only for a second or two) giving up on the whole dream. It was that bad. But then, thankfully, I’d snap out of it. I’d remember that I was just going through the motions, seeing everything that might be the one, on my way to finding “the one.” And I did. And in one month I’ll be signing off from my farm. My home. THE ONE I’ve been waiting for.