{"id":111,"date":"2011-04-19T09:31:26","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T13:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/myhappyplace\/?p=111"},"modified":"2011-04-28T12:02:35","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T16:02:35","slug":"where-the-fairies-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html","title":{"rendered":"Where the Fairies Live"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_112\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-112\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/myhappyplace\/files\/2011\/04\/walking-in-paradise.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-112\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/233\/2011\/04\/walking-in-paradise-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-112\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Walking in paradise....<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s take a walk&#8221; says my husband, holding out his hand&#8230;his other hand holds the &#8220;snake stick&#8221; (just in case ;)). All three kids start running around like mad children looking for their rubber boots or getting a drink of water. I actually pick up a chicken (yes, they are that tame) who has managed to get in the fenced yard so I can return her to the flock on the way. And then we start off&#8230;.down our hill&#8230;right by the chicken coop (deposit Mika the chicken)&#8230;in to our pasture&#8230;.past the little pond&#8230;next to the blackberry bushes (in bloom!)&#8230;and straight in to paradise.<\/p>\n<p>Paradise consists of a number of walking paths Joe has made through the woods on the back acre of our property. The trees tower&#8230;the paths are mowed smooth&#8230;there are log benches and chairs strategically placed throughout the walk at my favorite spot&#8211;and then Joe&#8217;s favorite spot. You can see the neighbor&#8217;s cows on the other side of the fence.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s magical. I&#8217;m sure fairies live there.<\/p>\n<p>We have it &#8220;made in the shade&#8221; and it&#8217;s hard to think back to the time when this place was just our dream&#8230;or before we lived here&#8230;or when it was just a nasty place that nobody wanted!\u00a0 But only five years ago we lived &#8220;in town&#8221; and had tree envy issues! We wanted so badly to live in the country but we had just moved back from a five-month adventure to South Dakota&#8211;Joe having given up his good job before then. He was teaching part time and I was baking and babysitting just to pay the mortgage on our home and buy groceries. It was a ridiculous thing to dream of living in the country.<\/p>\n<p>But you know what? Ridiculous or not&#8230;we dreamed.<\/p>\n<p>We wished.<\/p>\n<p>We visualized.<\/p>\n<p>We prayed.<\/p>\n<p>And one day I found an ugly little foreclosed house on the Century 21 website&#8230;with five acres&#8230;.for $38,000 (yes, you read that right).\u00a0 As we were driving up the hill to look at it the first time&#8230;right before it came in to view&#8230;I heard God&#8217;s voice so clearly say, &#8220;It&#8217;s a hidden treasure&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s good he said that *before* I saw it!\u00a0 Joe&#8217;s first words when he looked in the window? &#8220;Not &#8216;no&#8217; but HELL NO!&#8221; It really was that bad! People, there was raccoon poo-poo in the back bathroom!<\/p>\n<p>But, as God tends to be&#8230;God was right.<\/p>\n<p>And now we live in a paradise.\u00a0 It&#8217;s just one of many &#8220;dreams coming true&#8221; stories but it&#8217;s an extra special one because&#8230;well&#8230;it&#8217;s *our* dreams coming true. And I guarantee *your* dream can come true, too. It&#8217;s all about simply choosing a dream and believing.<\/p>\n<p>Tell me your dream! I&#8217;ll believe with you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s take a walk&#8221; says my husband, holding out his hand&#8230;his other hand holds the &#8220;snake stick&#8221; (just in case ;)). All three kids start running around like mad children looking for their rubber boots or getting a drink of water. I actually pick up a chicken (yes, they are that tame) who has managed&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":386,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,57,61,51,15,42,87,60,58,17,62,59,24],"tags":[249,92],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buying-property","category-dreams","category-fairies","category-family","category-family-life","category-farm","category-inspiration","category-paradise","category-prayer","category-purposeful-living","category-remodeling","category-visualizing","category-wishes","tag-purposeful-living","tag-visualization"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Where the Fairies Live - My Happy Place<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where the Fairies Live - My Happy Place\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;Let&#8217;s take a walk&#8221; says my husband, holding out his hand&#8230;his other hand holds the &#8220;snake stick&#8221; (just in case ;)). All three kids start running around like mad children looking for their rubber boots or getting a drink of water. I actually pick up a chicken (yes, they are that tame) who has managed&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"My Happy Place\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-19T13:31:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-04-28T16:02:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/myhappyplace\/files\/2011\/04\/walking-in-paradise-300x199.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"kjackson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Where the Fairies Live - My Happy Place","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Where the Fairies Live - My Happy Place","og_description":"&#8220;Let&#8217;s take a walk&#8221; says my husband, holding out his hand&#8230;his other hand holds the &#8220;snake stick&#8221; (just in case ;)). All three kids start running around like mad children looking for their rubber boots or getting a drink of water. I actually pick up a chicken (yes, they are that tame) who has managed&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html","og_site_name":"My Happy Place","article_published_time":"2011-04-19T13:31:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-04-28T16:02:35+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/myhappyplace\/files\/2011\/04\/walking-in-paradise-300x199.jpg"}],"author":"kjackson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html","name":"Where the Fairies Live - My Happy Place","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/myhappyplace\/files\/2011\/04\/walking-in-paradise-300x199.jpg","datePublished":"2011-04-19T13:31:26+00:00","dateModified":"2011-04-28T16:02:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/#\/schema\/person\/8a921a151b82f5352cf9c3cc20d82fa4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/myhappyplace\/files\/2011\/04\/walking-in-paradise-300x199.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/myhappyplace\/files\/2011\/04\/walking-in-paradise-300x199.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/04\/where-the-fairies-live.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Where the Fairies Live"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/","name":"My Happy Place","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/#\/schema\/person\/8a921a151b82f5352cf9c3cc20d82fa4","name":"kjackson","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/author\/kjackson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/386"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}