Finding Home

I have a confession. Some people already know this, but some people haven't known me as long. I moved to Illinois when Jacob and I got married. I moved from a city of 130,000 people to a town of 11,000. I HATED it here. Hated. It.

Sure, I was excited that I was married and that we had a new house. I was happy that I convinced Jacob to live in Taylorville rather than Assumption/Moweaqua because I couldn't imagine living in a town of less than 2,000 people!

I felt lost and alone. We went to church in Assumption on Sundays and had a few friends, but in town I had no one but Jacob and I missed my friends in Iowa. I cried a lot. After a few months I started a job at the daycare, and I started to get to know some people, but then I felt like I was still alone when I wasn't working. I did eventually make some friends at work and even a best friend!

I hated not living close to stores besides Walmart (and quite honestly I still kinda dislike that a lot).

We stopped going to church when I was about 6 months pregnant with Daniel. Then I quit my job to be a stay at home mom. The stay at home mom part was great and when he was born, I started to feel a little less alone. I had someone who was with me and needed me all day long. But, I was still missing something and wished I had some mom friends.

I tried to find a mom group in town, but there was nothing. No churches offered anything. I would have to drive to Springfield if I wanted to join a group. That just made my hate grow for Taylorville. There was nothing for me. Or so it felt.

After awhile, I started venturing out with Daniel. I'd take him on walks in the stroller and we'd explore. I had kind of just lived in this little bubble the first couple of years I lived here. I didn't go a lot of places, so this was kind of an adventure.

Finally I decided to get a small part time job at the Y. And while I didn't really love my job there, I made a lot of connections with people, and have stayed in contact with several of my families. I started feeling like maybe I was becoming a part of the community.

Daniel and I continued our adventures. I discovered that we have 3 parks and not just the one I thought we had. We started going to the library to read books, check out books and even join in for story time when we could.

While I found all of these connections to the community helpful and comforting, it wasn't until a little over 2 years ago when I started going to Calvary that I finally felt like I was at home. Funny, that I lived 2 miles from the church that would make my heart content, but it took me 6 years to walk through the doors. God put it on my heart several times over the years. Especially after we stopped going to church at all. Every year we took Daniel to Trunk or Treat, and I'd always kind of wonder what it would be like to go to church there.

I've now lived in Taylorville for 8.5 years and I can finally say that I really love it.

I love seeing familiar faces. I enjoy some of the small businesses in town. It's beautiful in the Fall. I love our brick roads...even though it feels like you may have lost car parts driving over them sometimes. And, I of course love Christmas in the Park every year! We always go on Christmas Eve. There's so much more that I love, and so little that I dislike now.

It's not to say that Taylorville doesn't have any problems, but really everywhere does. And yes, our house is on the market and we're now looking in Moweaqua...which means eventually I'll have to learn to call another town home. I'm content here until God says that it's time. I confess, I've been kind of happy that he's been keeping us here longer.

Here are 3 bonus confessions for the locals. Since living here I have never eaten at Bill's Toasty or Tastee Treet (except a few bites of ice cream a coworker shared one time). And I have never eaten a "horseshoe" nor did I know what one was until I moved here! If anyone wants to right my wrongs, feel free to introduce me to what I've been missing.