Ground-Breaking Ceremony

Last week Wednesday we submitted our application for our building permit.  2 days later they called to say that the permit was ready!  So, today Jay went back to the office to pick it up and as soon as he arrived home, we packed everyone up and headed out for the long-awaited ground-breaking ceremony.  Now, I know most people don't do this sort of thing with a house but we aren't most people!  We have no plans to move from this house for at least 50 years so it is a project worthy of a ceremony.  I have been dreaming about this for a long time and, besides, it will be fun!  Or so I thought.

First things first.  We put up the building permit to state that we are, indeed, building a house. 

Then on to the ground-turning ceremony. 

With hard hats in hand and enough shovels for everyone we arrived at the site only to discover that I could no longer remember how to find the self-timer setting on my camera.  That tells you how often I use that function.  So, while the kids stood and stood and stood and stood with shovels in hand and hardhats continually falling off their heads, I tried to figure out my camera.  Needless to say, I never found the timer function and the kids lost total interest in pictures at all.  Pepe asked why I was ruining their fun with pictures!  So, since all they wanted to do was dig a hole, I quickly took some photos of the rest of the family and let them get digging.  Turns out all those photos were blurry thanks to a wrong setting I made in my attempt to find the self-timer button but I only discovered that later.  Ya, not so fun.  So, while they are digging away, Ali starts crying. 

And crying and crying and crying.  Turns out the earth was a tad hard for her and she couldn't dig a hole and digging a hole was the whole reason we were there, in her mind.  Eventually her daddy came to help her and once she could actually see the dirt under the sod she was much happier. 

All the kids wanted to do was dig a hole and dig a BIG hole.  I believe they thought they would actually dig the basement themselves. 

By the time I told them we had to go, since it was supper time, they were less than enthusiastic about leaving since there still wasn't a HOLE!  They didn't get the whole "this is just a ceremony thing."  Only when we were on our way back to our in-laws (we borrowed some of their shovels and hardhats) did I discover all the group photos were blurry.  Then while Jay was returning the shovels to their right places did I discover how to turn on the timer on the camera.  So, back into his parents house (we were still there and the kids were still buckled in their seats) to get the shovels and hardhats and back to the site where we FINALLY got a decent photo. 

And, with a bit of bribing, the kids were actually pleasant about the whole thing.  So, while I did have this dream in my head for a long time and reality was nothing like my dream, I am so glad to be where we are in this project.  We have a building permit, we have turned the sod, now just to get last minute details in place (like financing!) so we can bring in the big boys to dig in 2 weeks time!  Most of all, we are going through this as a family filled with love, laughter, tears, frustration, triumphs, trials and whole lot of grace. 

But in the end, we will be closer and stronger.  At least that is the dream I am praying WILL come true!