A Community I love…….

I grew up in a small town..went to college in a small town….lived in two more small towns.  I craved a “big city” experience but never got one.  The largest city I have lived in ever was Waterloo.  Now, I have some attachment to Waterloo because that is where my children were born and where they came home.  It’s where I met and married Joe and it will always hold a special place in my heart, but I was never truly happy there.

We lived in a house for 7 years after we got married and Joe had lived there for 5 years before that.  We knew exactly one neighbor…one neighbor that we were friendly with and would talk to.  12 years!!  Either the neighbors would come and go like the seasons OR they just plain and simple weren’t friendly.  Now we lived in the “less than desirable” part of town so getting to know your neighbors could possibly become a liability so we just didn’t. 

When we had Josie and then soon after Katie. we decided we needed to start looking outside of Waterloo for our new home.  We were quickly growing out of our small 900 square foot, 2 bedroom home.  Then I found myself pregnant with Owen and we knew it was time.  We looked in several small communities very close to Waterloo.  We didn’t entertain the idea of moving almost 30 miles away. 

We had a friend (THANK YOU SHANNON) who has a daughter, Josie’s age also with Down syndrome who lived in Grundy Center and had such great things to say about it.  We actually came down one Saturday afternoon to look at houses and had lunch with Shannon and her family.  I never in a million years thought that Joe would move here, but after we were done with lunch, we was convinced that this was the place for us.  We put an offer on a house that following week and 6 weeks later we were getting ready for our big move.  Not an easy task with three kids aged almost 3, almost 2 and 4 months old.  But we did it.

It was apparent from almost the first day that this was a unique community.  Within the first two weeks, we had 4 gift baskets dropped off at our house by neighbors welcoming us to the neighborhood and two other neighbors that came over with a complete dinner for us.  It was amazing.  Another week passed and several people stopped by to say hi and brought us bread, cookies, apples etc.  It was surreal.  Since then, we have gotten to know ALL our neighbors and they are great.  The kids have a safe place to play and wonderful neighbor kids to play with.  The schools here are wonderful and I couldn’t ask for a better place to live.  We love it here.  We feel so at home here…. in just 4 years that we never felt in Waterloo in 12 years there.  Thank you Grundy Center for welcoming us with open arms!!!!!!

I challenge you to blog about your town and WHY you love living there!!!!