Susan and her granddaughter cleaning built-ins.

By Susan Shanklin

Daniel Boone and Lewis and Clark come to mind. Adventurers and explorers. Maybe Moses and Caleb. 

Tom and Susan spied the northern Minnesota landscape and staked a claim in Scandia, Minnesota! We loaded up our wagons and headed north. Everything is intact, and we have settled into our project-laden 1910 Craftsman bungalow.

Everything begins with prayer if your journey is to be successful. Pray I did, and the Lord gave me a word. Yes, one word! “Patience!”

Oh, no-no Lord, that’s not the word I was looking for. You must be thinking about someone else.

Patience! I don’t like that word. Do you like that word? I want a word or words of victory. Powerful words like, “Go forward, my child. I will destroy the enemy with fire, and your path will be flat and smoooooth. “

From the get-go, this journey has not been smooth but look at the end results. Is this not what faith is—the end result, not the beginning? Wish I had read this article before we started. Haha.

We came across this property by a phone call. Then there was another party interested. Then, the seller accepted the highest bid. Then they didn’t. Then they presented a counter-offer. I know, confusing. First, the house was out of our price range, and then it wasn’t. Oh yeah, that word—patience! 

Tom and I would remind each other frequently of that word. 

Since we didn’t want to be houseless, we purchased the new house before listing our Mankato house. Risky comes to mind.

We finish up painting, touch up, clean up, and put our Mankato house on the market with a whiz-bang super-smart realtor … and full of the Holy Ghost by the way. 

We endured three days of back-to-back showings from morning to evening. We have never eaten out so much in all our lives or spent hours in our car staring off into the distance. Oh, yeah … patience! 

Let patience have her perfect work … Four offers! Which one? Why, the best one, of course!

Yippy, it’s done! Oh no, inspection. Oh, appraisal. Oh, oh … patience!

Susan packs, packs, packs. Tom packs. We get a dumpster. We line up helpers. We set the moving date, January 1. That’s a good time, right. Why not start out on the first of the new year for a new beginning?

January 1 turns out to be our first coldest, minus-0 day of the season. Oh, I felt so bad for the mighty strong men carrying and putting our treasures in the biggest Uhaul available! But wait, a saint from Holland, Minnesota, shows up with a horse trailer for the nasty garage stuff. Hurrah for our helpers in Mankato! 

Some of the frozen chosen went home and some endured to the end in Scandia.

I followed Tom by car from Mankato to Scandia, 120 miles. I followed him so close I figured if he slammed on his brakes for any reason, I would land in his back seat. Tom later asked why I was tailgating him! My response, I didn’t want to get lost!!!!!!!!!

Well, it hadn’t warmed up much when we got to Scandia. Strong hands and backs unloaded box after box, chair after chair. Hurrah for the folks in Scandia. 

Daughter, Heidi, provided hot chili, Fritos, and the best blondies this side of the Mississippi!

I’m home. I’m home! I’m home with 40 thousand boxes and furniture lining the walls. We collapse on our air mattress that night. Patience! Patience!

There is no easy move. There is no easy unload. There are no easy parts to life sometimes. 

I want it all—right now! Clean house, order, and another bathroom. Is that too much to ask for?

Patience!

Our quaint bungalow is needy for repair, mending, and restoration. Sounds like a human heart.

Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Moses, and Caleb each had to put one foot in front of the other to be able to see what was next. We aren’t able to possess the land by standing still. 

I still have boxes to unpack and suitcases full of Lord knows what. I’ll get there or throw it on a burn pile!

I still need patience, but it’s a more friendly word now. Each day has its small successes to keep me going. It took a supernatural God to create the world and all that’s in it six days, so maybe in six months, I will find my cooking funnels.

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