Good things are coming!

As most of you know, John and I have gotten really good at waiting.

He still hates red lights and, well, anything that gets in his way while driving. But, we've learned to settle into a mindset where for the big things, we can wait.

There's this one thing we've been waiting on for a couple of years. It's been hard to go anywhere without a stark reminder that something is missing. We've heard from other people and even found information online we thought would be helpful in filling that empty space. We would speculate about the when and the who, but even with all the research we did, the outcome was not up to us.

A few months ago we got a piece of information we were very excited about. One piece of this puzzle finally came into light. We wondered about the timing of it all, why it took so long, but mostly we were just happy things were moving along.

Of course now, we have even more mysteries in this area to solve, but it's fun knowing a little piece.

What am I talking about? Ah, you're going to hate me. I've totally led you down a path and you're probably thinking, "Oh my goodness, this is it, she's finally pregnant!"

But, that isn't what this blog is about.

Across the street from where we live, there's a big shopping center that has been vacant except for a Chuck-E-Cheese for the past few years. One by one, we've watched the stores there close and move and not be replaced. We did enjoy having the big empty parking lot to practice my motorcycle riding skills, but the whole thing was really an eyesore. Not really great for property value, you know.

Well, a few months ago I heard that Walmart had bought it and they were putting in a Neighborhood Walmart. And soon after that, construction began and a Walmart banner appeared. Now, I have avoided Walmart since moving to Northern Virginia, and if you live here, you understand why. They are not the same as the stores in the south, mostly because they're poorly managed, poorly staffed, poorly stocked, overcrowded, dirty, and just not a fun place to go.

But we have great hope in the Neighborhood version. These are typically smaller, nicer stores, so we have our fingers crossed. There's also at least 2 other stores in the complex with no signs, so we still don't know what's going in there.

We do love watching day by day as the big empty lot is transformed into what we can only hope will make our lives better (and our house's value go up!). So, we'll see what it all becomes in the next few months.

It's become symbolic for me of a hope both actualized with revelation and a mystery still unfolding with great potential.

So today, you have two options of questions to answer, and of course you can answer both.
1) How does watching construction projects make you feel?
2) If you could live across the street from any store, what would it be?