For a few years now Stephanie and I have been trying to figure a way to live close to a church we can plug into and be very active in, but still not be too far away from my Houston customers, and still be in an area where the internet services required by the hosting part of my business are available. We couldn't afford to spend too much on a house either, but wanted something with space to have people visit regularly and have plenty of room to hang out. We also wanted plenty of room for Stephanie's family from Louisiana to visit, including her sister and her four children!

It's turned out not to be an easy set of requirements to meet. But we've located a house in Baytown that meets all those criteria, made an offer we could afford, and incredibly, it's been accepted. A close professional inspection revealed the house was very well built and is in fantastic condition. It's less than 10 minutes from the "Refinery", the Vineyard Church in Baytown. Here are some pictures of the house ... (not very good pictures - the house is much larger than these pictures can adequately show - but here's an arial view that helps). It has three huge bedrooms, a large dining room, a large living room, and a large den, on a large corner lot with plenty of room for parking, and plenty of room for a garage-office-apartment some friends are going to help us build.

The very sad part of this move is going to be seeing the lifelong friends we've made in the Lake Jackson area,  less often. Even with a 1-hour drive to church, many of our Lake Jackson friends have become our dearest (making it very much worth the drive, but increasing the heartache of leaving town every Sunday afternoon, knowing we probably won't be able to see them during the week). We've looked at getting a house in Lake Jackson several times, but realized it would be a very risky move for the hosting part of my business, even if the specialized internet services it requires were available out there, and even if we could find something with plenty of space, that we could afford.

But, it's not goodbye. The friends we've made in Lake Jackson are lifelong friends with very dear places in our hearts. They will still be seeing us and hearing from us, and I hope they will all know that distance is not going to change that.