Neighborly Love

I've recently realized that one of the things that makes homeownership so rewarding is building relationships with neighbors. In our rental house, we were mostly surrounded by other renters, so no one took time to get to know one another, realizing we would all be moving again soon. There was one permanent couple across the street, but our conversations with them rarely extended past "hi" for the same reason.

In our new neighborhood, we are still surrounded by several renters, but also a few permanent couples/families. The weekend we moved into our house, Bob and Diane from across the street brought us cookies while we were unpacking. That was our first taste of neighborly love and our appetite for it has only grown since then.

When I returned the plate from the cookies, Bob (who has a permanent welding station set up in his driveway) proceeded to show me all the projects he's been working on (Levi refers to him as Bob the Builder) and then took me inside to see Diane's embroidery work. I probably spent 30 minutes at their house just chatting and it felt natural.

It didn't end there. The next weekend, Bob came over to invite Levi to play golf with him sometime. I think Levi intends to take him up on the offer as soon as it gets cooler.

Then there's Ken and Wanda. They have two girls, Ashley and Marissa. Ashley is near our age, but she still lives at home due to a disability that was recently corrected by surgery, and Marissa is somewhere around 16, I would guess. Wanda and Ashley (sometimes Marissa) frequently come chat with us while we're in the yard watering our plants in the evenings. We'll talk to them for 30 minutes to an hour at times (Wanda is a BIG talker) and I love it.

Today, Wanda came over to give me some curtains that she bought for herself at a garage sale (they didn't work with her decor). She told me she thought of me when she saw them and thought they would look nice with the light blue/gray paint in our master bedroom. How thoughtful of her! I'm not sure I'll put them in that particular room, but they will definitely go somewhere in our house.

We've only lived in our new house for a month, but we already have neighbors who feel like old friends. We are so thankful that God has blessed us by surrounding us with such wonderful people. I look forward to the years to come living in this house and getting to know them better.