Unpacking Joy

It’s been a while since I’ve sat down to write anything. These past few weeks have been a whirlwind as we prepare for the settlement of our new house. And by preparation, I mean all the very adult tasks: finalizing home insurance, sorting out electricity and internet, checking council rates, paying lawyer fees, and an endless parade of furniture and appliance shopping.

Since our current rental came fully furnished, we literally owned nothing. So when I say we’re starting from scratch, I mean scratch.

We ticked off the real essentials first: a mattress, fridge, heater, and washer. Then came the “non-essentials” that somehow still feel essential when you have absolutely nothing — bedroom suite furniture, a couch, coffee table, lamps, vacuum, fan, and air purifier (the new-house paint smell is no joke). Thankfully, our timing couldn’t have been better: Labour Weekend sale, then this week’s Black Friday sale. A small blessing, but one we felt deeply, because new beginnings are expensive!

Last Friday — 14th of November — we finally got the keys. Title officially transferred under our names! It still doesn’t feel real. And tomorrow, after days of packing our lives into boxes, doing back-and-forth trips to clean and organize, and slowly setting things up, we’ll officially be moving in.

Yesterday, as we assembled our fancy bed, tested our new mattress, and tried out the appliances we’d set up, something washed over us — a quiet, almost overwhelming kind of gratitude.

Back in the Philippines, we never really lived in a home we owned. We made do in a little one-bedroom apartment, squeezing ourselves into its tiny corners. And when we finally bought a house, life decided it wasn’t our time yet. We ended up renting it out because our apartment was closer to both our workplaces. Ironically, that house — three bedrooms, two baths — had rental income higher than the monthly mortgage. It was a no-brainer, more practical for others to rent than for us to live in.

And now here we are. It’s finally our turn. For the first time, we get to live in a home that is ours — a place we’ll breathe into, grow into, maybe even grow old in.

And I’ll be honest — opening all these new things felt surreal. We’re not a materialistic couple. We live simply. We don’t even shop for fun. So cutting open boxes filled with brand-new things — choosing them, assembling them, seeing them come together in an empty space that’s slowly becoming ours — felt like Christmas came early. It was almost too much that for a moment, I wondered if I had done enough good in this life to deserve all of this.

For a moment, I felt undeserving.

But maybe this wasn’t really about deserving at all. It was about timing — God’s timing — unfolding in ways we didn’t expect. It was about every small choice, every difficult season, every prayer whispered on tired nights that brought us here, even when we didn’t realize they were leading somewhere meaningful.

Maybe this is what grace looks like: arriving softly after years of waiting, working, and praying.

And so here we are.
Starting slow.
Starting with gratitude so full it hardly fits in our chest.

And as we begin this season, all I can do is whisper a quiet thank You —
for every step, every delay, and every answered prayer that led us here.