Biddan Ridge is my new home and it is the first house built in Hawk’s Ridge, a development in Alachua, Florida. I bought the land, 3.55 acres, in February 2010. It was my first asset acquisition post-marriage. It was the first thing I owned as a newly single person. The only thing missing from my life at that point was a home. I had a good job and assurances of a future income. I share custody of my two awesome sons with their father 50:50. I wanted a home. Actually, I wanted “The House”. I have been drawing and daydreaming about a particular house for many years….like nearly 20 at this point. I imagined the kitchen, the light through the windows, the sound of the kids, the gardens and the flower beds. It was a dream richly imagined but ultimately…it was a dream locked inside my head. I was determined to make the dream a reality.
There were many obstacles.
Along the way, other people observed my tenacity and admitted that most other people would have quit. I am not a quitter and I don’t accept defeat well, especially when I believe there is still a chance, a possibility. I am a strangely hopeful person because often people consider me a wee bit pessimistic. I plug forward. I push on. I dig in and I dig deep.
It took two more years before I could acquire financing. TWO YEARS. Partly it was due to the financial markets but mostly it was due to being the first to build in what had become a bank owner development. For a long stretch, it seemed the whole affair would collapse. I spent a tremendous amount of my private time in prayer and reflection and in the end, my prayers turned to petitions. I needed to discover of an avenue of financing OR the ability to let go of the dream. In my bleakest hours, I begged for God to help me let it all go and to walk away from it all. It it was not meant to happen, He would show me how to find peace in it all without feeling as if I had failed.
It is from this endeavor that I selected the name of the house. I always wanted the house to be named. All great houses are named: Ponderosa, Tara, Graceland, Balmoral…..you get the point. The word Biddan is an Olde English word that means “to pray, petition, beg the Lord”. It was quite fitting.