A very dear friend of my family’s is going to Iraq for a 2nd tour of duty and his wife, who is like a sister to me, would have been in TX alone with our 2 God-children. Our 10 year old God daughter was adopted within the previous 3 years from the Ukraine. (There are 4 in my family and their family added 3-4 more depending on whether our friend was on leave,and between us we had 3 ferrets, 3 cats, and 1 lovable yorkie) They attend church as a family on a regular basis, he is looking forward to being a pastor one day and she is praying he won’t be. She’s very judgmental at times of herself an others. She doens’ t like to be involved with other people outside her bubble. She has alot of esteem and unresolved issues from her childhood. She didn’t want anymore children after their son but her husband wanted to adopt.
Needless to say she was facing alot of stressful decisions and her desire was to be near family, she only has 1 brother living and he is about 5 1/2 hours away and her husband’s family is about 1 1/2 hours away from us. Their house went on the market…we immediately started finishing our downstairs bonus area w/bathroom.
They moved in October 15th.
There has been alot of groaning and growing, crying and laughing, fighting and fun. We are doing life together!! and it is beautiful.
She doesn’t work. I have since started back to college so she has become a loving caregiver to my 8 yr old son. She enjoys cooking the nightly meal (even though she has had GI bypass surgery) and my husband and I clean up after. If any family goes out of town there are built in pet sitters, quality time with one child is easy with built in sitter for the other child.

We play games together, attend church together, plan eat outs and eat ins together. she and my daughter and I are planning a girls trip to VA Beach to see my daughter’s fiance.

I would have to say the most challenges have risen when it comes to parenting. They are authoritarian and we are authoritative. But we have come to love and respect each others boundaries in that area. We have embraced the fact the none of the children will die being exposed to either style of parenting and as children do so easily…they have adapted well to having 3 parental figures.
My daughter recently got engaged to a man in the Army and my sister-friend has provided much counseling for her in this time that they are apart from one another.

I tease her often about being my most high maintenance friend-her love language is quality time. But the great thing is the 3 adults are all different in that area- mine is acts of service, and my husband’s is touch.

God meant for us to do life together!

After living in the “commune” 4 and 1/2 months now she told her husband on the phone (jokingly, because the first 2 months every time something went wrong she was looking for an apartment) that she thinks she has decided she wants to live with us until his return in March 2009.
BTW, I don’t think you’re nuts and I do love it!

Moving to the Intermountain West was a move out of that bubble. While trying out a VERY strong Christian church I attended a men’s retreat. Wine. Cigars. Cards. The men were being real.

My wife and I have found it extremely difficult to find a church in our area that is balanced. The search seems so futile at times. So . . . we thought we’d start our own church …. the Church of the Down to Earth. Got a problem? C’mon over. We’ll talk about it over a beer or a glass of wine on the back porch.

I like your thinking, Sarah. Keep it up.

seriously, i do like the concept. you could tone it down a bit and start with a smaller implementation. what about renting a room in your home? this would still have a smaller comune feeling, but be practical and less beuracracy than trying to manage a rental complex (and associating headaches) and rid you of some of the really complicated stuff of how to you evict someone in a christian manner.

and yes, my eureka moments are in the shower as well. I think my employer should upgrade the facilities, we’d have more monumental brearthroughs i’m sure.

that or let me come in an hour late ’cause i was thinking’

I have felt as you do that the sense of community is being lost with our generation. I’ve serously thought about buying a real compound, one where I could live with my parents (who could help raise my kids) to bring us back to our roots of community, and social interaction that is practical and fun.