I Heart Kearns (for the most part)

Our little house - funnily enough, one of the window panes in the front window was recently broken by the kids, which makes it all the more Kearns :)

We have lived in our house for 5 years!  This might not sound like that big of a deal if you've lived in the same house for many years, but it is definitely a milestone for us.  The longest we lived anywhere else was in Logan for 2 1/2 years while we were going to school.  So when we bought our house we told ourselves that we were going to be here for 5ish years (because that seemed like an eternity) and then probably move.

Now that the 5 years are up, it's pretty obvious that we're not going anywhere anytime soon.  Between adoption debt (almost finished with it!) and just how much we are willing to pay for housing, it's not in our financial best interest to leave.  But besides that, the area has definitely grown on me.  Don't get me wrong - there are still plenty of things that irk me about where we live, but they don't bug me as much as they used to.   Or maybe I'm just emotionally investing myself for the long-term since that's what it looks like it will be.  Either way, for the past few months I've been mentally tallying the pros of living where we do.  And as I've been seeing the good, it's pretty evident that Heavenly Father put us exactly where our family needed to be.  Who knows what will happen in the future and where we might go, but  right now I'm seeing the huge blessings our little family has been given by living here.

So here are some of the specific things I appreciate about our quirky neighborhood, in no specific order:


Proximity:
Our house is right across the street from the elementary.  As a one car family, this has become a can't-do-without.  And with the school right there, our street is one of the first to get plowed during the winter.  Next to the school is a park where we spent what seemed like half our waking hours during the summer, and the church is around the corner from the park.
The library is within walking/kids biking distance during good weather, so that has been our twice a week outing.

School:
The elementary staff has A LOT of experience teaching kids whose second language is English.  The ESL program is well established, and Tam tested into it and began receiving services within a week of being enrolled in school.  Because of the economics of the area, our school is a Title I school so the preschool is free(!), and just across the street at the school.  I don't think we would have been able to swing preschool this year if it wasn't at our elementary, just because of the transportation dilemma of one car.

Racial and Cultural Diversity:
I don't know the exact numbers for our entire neighborhood, but the school enrollment lists only 30% of the student population as white.  The racial and cultural diversity is obvious by the stores and restaurants, and by the churches in the immediate area.  The churches are what I noticed the most when we first moved in.  Within a mile radius there are not only multiple LDS congregations (in English and Samoan), but a Samoan Methodist Church, a Catholic church with services in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese, and a Baptist church with services in English and Spanish.  The LDS ward that we attend is a pretty interesting demographic, where there are a whole lot of older white people (80+ years old) who are the original homeowner group, and then a smaller group of younger families that is more diverse.  Last year at our ward Christmas party the teenagers and some of the primary kids acted out the nativity story, and as I watched I realized that of the ten or so kids up there, there were only 2 who were white kids born in America.

Wonderful People:
I think this is something that can be said about most places, and I didn't see it as much at first because our neighbors tend to be a bit rougher around the edges, but as we've gotten to know them they are some of the most caring and giving people I've ever met.  It seems like people here just aren't as worried about what others think about them, but are very welcoming and quick to be kind.