Monday, April 18, 2005

Charity Begins at Home

Today, a coworker told me she wants to nominate me for an Extreme Makeover show.

My first reaction was "Well, I'm never wearing this outfit again", until she clarified that she meant the Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

My second reaction was, "Hmmm, yeah. I'm gonna have to go with No. But thanks."

She was all kinds of hurt. She thinks I'm "worthy" of something great like that because of all we've been through. I appreciate the thought, but honestly, I don't need a home makeover. Granted, our house is still a bit of a mess in some - okay, a lot - of areas. The basement is ripped apart as we slowly finish it. We have no garage. We only have two bedrooms, and they're small. It needs a ramp someday to get Ethan into the house more easily.

But as much as I love the city I've grown up in all my life, we want to move out of it someday. And the house isn't coming with us. We don't want the boys to live on a main street where they can't play outside safely. And we don't like the school system. Fixing the house up isn't going to fix that.

Plus, the truth is, we love our house. It would kill Jete to come home to find someone had messed it up by adding a master suite or installing an indoor pool. We've worked on it for 4 years now. Room by room we've fixed it up slowly, and we've put a lot of love into it. That's worth a lot more to us than some big budget overhaul.

Am I an ungrateful-ingrate to turn down an offer like that? Maybe. But I can think of a dozen people I know who deserve - or need - a home makeover more than I do. (Or even just a home in general.)

Of course, if Ty wants to come by and help Jete tile the entryway, or ABC wants to send us the money they would have spent.... well, I guess I wouldn't protest too much.

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