30DBC09: My hopes for the future

Seriously, who ever came up with these topics needs to diversify a bit.  I mean, my answer to this question isn’t a whole lot different than when I answered where I hope to be in 10 years, and you could even say that I elaborated on this a little bit when I talked about the beach house I’d love to have one day.

But a general picture of my “perfect” future would be a happy, healthy, and little-bit-larger-than-it-is-now family.  Which translates that I hope to give Seth and Erin at least one more biological sibling, and ideally, I’d love to have the space and resources and funds to adopt one more.  I know anymore a family with more than 2, let alone 4, children is not the norm, but it’s what my heart wants, so, who’s to say what is the norm.

I want to be close to family.  I want to be close to our parents as they age, and I’m sad that Ohio and Florida are so far apart to make it a literal impossibility to be close to everyone at the same time.  Not to mention that for now, we live in Tennessee.  But who knows…..  In addition to being close to our parents, as our children grow, leave the nest, and (if God wills) marry, I’d selfishly love for them to settle wherever Jim and I are.  I know it’s rarer and rarer, but, again, it’s my dream.  I can’t quite wrap my head around the thought of being a grandmother, but given enough years, that day will come, and I can’t think of a better things than to have my little’s littles running around my ankles nonstop.

I want to be close to Doug and Sara.  Again, I know firsthand that God will provide wonderful relationships wherever He places Jim and I, but again, if I’m dreaming of perfection, I can’t exclude being able to raise our families alongside and grow old with our dearest friends.

I want that vacation home. Maybe it’ll be a cabin or an RV instead of a lake house.  I don’t know.  And I guess it doesn’t matter.  I just want the place, ya know?

I want Jim to have a fulfilling career.  I don’t care what he does.  It can be blue collar, white collar, no collar.  He can keep working in an office, or grow our real estate portfolio to the point where he manages property full time.  I don’t care, as long as he is happy and fulfilled and doing something that makes him the best version of Jim.

I want to be actively involved as a family in our local church, wherever that may be.  In addition to using my musical talents, I have a strong passion for womens’ ministries, and hope to be used in an role that is both fulfilling to me and beneficial to others.  Jim also has gifts that could be used so powerfully in a church body that, at this stage in our lives, his schedule prohibits, but it is my dream someday that that “fulfilling career” I hope for him will allow him to serve in his church as well.

I want to live in a home that is paid for, with ample room for entertaining friends and all the family I hope to have living near me.  I want rooms that my grandchildren can think of as a home away from home.  I want a yard with big mature trees that we can hang swings and hammocks in and under which we can picnic and party to our hearts’ content.

I want the financial freedom to give generously – to our children, our church, our community – and to give back and bless others the way we, already at “just 30,” have been blessed by our parents, church family, and neighbors.

And lastly, I want a best girlfriend.  That one heart-sister that has seemed to elude me thus far in life.  I’ve had tastes and glimpses, and I’ve had sweet friendships wax and wane, but still, I wait, for that one special someone (of the female kind) to walk through life with.

But, when it’s all said and done, it’s all relative.  Contentment and joy are, I truly believe, a state of mind, and a choice, so, whatever life throws at me, I’ll figure it out and make it work.