Sharing a home with other generations is something I didn’t think would turn out as wonderfully as it did. We felt the first desire to ask my mom to move in with us after my husband and I were married about a year or two, but we wondered how it would work. Would we miss our privacy? Would it cause conflict in our marriage? Would my mom feel too hemmed in? How would we work out co-living with different schedules?
During this time, my husband and I were getting ready to make the move from our apartment to finding a family home and were expecting our first child. Even with all this going on, God gave us faith to pursue the possibility of my mom living with us. With growing excitement, we asked her, and to our surprise, she said the Lord had actually prompted her a few months prior to ask us the same question! Seeing God lay the same burden on all our hearts separately gave us confidence that God was preparing us all for this exciting new venture.
God began to pave the way in this process. We looked in many areas for homes together but couldn’t find anything that would be suitable for an in-law suite. After weeks, we considered another option: building our own home, as my husband is a contractor and worked for a builder. A realtor we knew through a mutual friend knew of a piece of land for sale in the area we wanted. The owner was selling the land for much less than we would have expected. It appraised for much more than we paid, and the landowner didn’t want to change the price! Through the generosity of my husband’s company at the time, we were able to build our home with a perfectly placed in-law suite for a lower cost. Many moments arose to stop and thank God, and we did this often as pieces fell into place for this move.
We entered our new living situation incredibly grateful for how God had already moved and what he would continue to do in growing us all together. He had been faithful, and his Word promised that he would continue to be. We had more children, and the relationship they have built with my mom over the years has been beautiful. We have so many encouraging times and conversations and benefit regularly from someone who is older and wiser and can offer insight.
We live life together in a way that is natural and creates meaningful memories, inviting my mom to join us for family times like Christmas morning, family dinners, and Saturday morning breakfasts in her side of the home. We don’t take for granted or forget to thank God for the gift he has given us in having Mom in our home, living life with us.
Multigenerational living can be bumpy and curvy at times, especially in seasons of conflict or busyness. But as I look back over these now 19 years we have lived together, I thank God for the memories we have made and how much I have learned about being a better mother and a better person.
The richness of my mother’s maturity in the Lord flows down to my children on a daily basis. We encourage them often to seek out that maturity and not to take lightly the opportunity they have to see how their grandmother lives out her life. In many ways, it is making them who they are. My children and my husband and I would all say that this has been a unique and special gift, and we treasure the days we have with her.
