would happen in a million years before I bought the place. Having said that, it has turned into a huge blessing.

I graduated college in 2010, and immediately after, I moved in with a friend who had bought a place. I lived with him until 2012. One day I was watching House Hunters on HGTV (yeah, yeah, I know...), and I had the thought of "Hey, I should buy a house". So I called a realtor, and the next day went in to meet with them. We brought up houses online, and were looking at pictures. We came across a house that I instantly fell in love with - specifically the inside of the house. The people who were selling it had redone the whole first floor, and upgraded parts of the other floors as well. We then looked at the address, and lo and behold, it was the house behind my parent's place. Two days later, after having gone and checked out a bunch of other houses, I pulled the trigger on the one behind my parents. I was, and still am, conscious of the optics of living right next to my parents, but then I think about the huge blessings and why I believe it was meant to happen...

That same year, in 2012, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. She was actually in the hospital the day I bought the house. She had surgery to remove the cancer, and it didn't actually seem too serious at the time (or rather, I don't think I realized the seriousness of it). Well, it came back a few years later, so she had surgery again, and it seemed to be gone. This happened I think around four times or five times. Over that time of course we realized it was more and more serious. Eventually about 2 years ago they told her they couldn't do any more for her, and that it could be even just a few months before she passed. Well, gratefully she was a trooper, and she lived until just a few months ago (about 1 1/2 years after being told they couldn't do more for her). Over that time I was able to visit her and be with her almost every single day because 1) I live where I do, and 2) I work from home. I was able to help out her and my dad with whatever they needed, and in that way, it has been a huge blessing to be where I am. My mom is gone now, and so my dad is living on his own. Being here continues to be a blessing, because it allows me to help my dad now - keeping him company and just helping out however I can (he's 76).

I've always been pretty independent, so when I was younger I never would have thought things would work out this way, but now that it has, I can see God's hand in it.