Now that we had a contract on a new house and a new little one on the way, we knew we had to get our house in tiptop shape to get it on the market. We decided to go with the same realtor that we were using for the new house (who works with the builder) because we got a great feeling about her and we felt like she wanted our house to sell as much as we did, so we could keep our contract on the new house. She did an amazing job! She worked SO hard, and we had a showing almost every single day. The house was under contract in just about two weeks and went to closing with absolutely no issues. So if you're in the market for a realtor, Terri Kerr is your girl. Can't say enough great things abouth her...
And then we were homeless...well, not really. But I did wring my hands about this one little detail for quite a while. We had not expected our house to sell quite so soon, and while we were thrilled, we now had to find a place that would let us do a 5 month lease with a dog and not charge us an arm and a leg to do it. I checked apartment complexes, I searched for rental homes, I drove around town looking for "For Rent" signs with not much luck. I did the only thing I knew to do when I'm in over my head...I began praying. I asked for guidance and clarity and begged God not to use this moment to teach our family that we really could get by in just a one bedroom apartment for 5 months. And I then I found this random house on this random website...called the landlord and he really was okay with just a 5 month lease and a dog and didn't even want a pet deposit or anything!! I had seen some sketchy places and was almost convinced that this was too good to be true...but I'm pretty optimistic so we went by and checked the house out and it was actually okay! We decided it would definitely serve our purpose for the time we needed it.
The landlord worked hard for the next month getting the house ready for us (it had been vacant for a while...), and it was just such an answered prayer and another way that God provided for us when we were losing hope...we were this close to being in a tiny apartment with no storage and paying ridiculous amounts of money for deposits and a short term lease...and all of a sudden, we had this 3 bedroom house with a yard and a two car garage for storage, and we were saving well over $2000 over the course of 5 months.
And why is this story important? Well, we soon found out after we moved in that the house was, get this...going into foreclosure!! I was all, uh-uh, no way, this CANNOT be happening! But the landlord assured us it was okay, and that he was working out the details. Turns out, the landlord had fallen on some hard times, and we were as much a blessing to him as he was to us! It's always amazing to me when I take a step back to see how much God orders our steps and works things out according to His purposes and plan. This landlord, who will likely lose this house at some point, has gone out of his way to make sure we have had everything we need. He has taken care of every single problem and every issue we have had. What a blessing this house has been for us (even when we don't realize or appreciate it at times).
So now, here we are, just a few days from closing, and we could not be more excited or thrilled or anxious to get settled into what we hope will be our home for many, many years to come. We (and by we, I mean Matt) will be spending the next couple of weeks painting, hanging window treatments, closet organizers, and those kinds of things, and we will be officially moved in on October 8. Just in time to get that new nursery all set up! Which reminds me that I included almost nothing in all of this updating on the kids, so stay tuned for the next post...an update on the boys (and girl).
Monday, September 24, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Long overdue update...part 2
Matt loves houses, house hunting, pouring over house plans...he even likes to watch HGTV (but really mostly the boy shows on there). Anyone who knows Matt knows that he likes things to be neat and organized and matching. What people probably don't know is that he can spend a lot of time doing things like making paper furniture to scale to fit on a house plan or tape the outline of furniture on the floor to get a better idea of how to organize a room and make sure that everything is juuuuust right.
So since our "guest" bedroom would soon be occupied by a new little member of our family, I thought we might need to rethink our plans for furniture there. This was the perfect opportunity to sneak in some news that Matt wouldn't be expecting. I took our house plan and drew little furniture drawings in all the rooms upstairs (complete with a crib and changing table in the "guest room") so that I could, um..."get his thoughts on furniture placement" for the new house. Once I got everything just right, I watched the clock tick the minutes by until it was finally time for Matt to arrive home.
While the boys were outside playing, I casually greeted Matt..."Hi honey! Glad you're home! Hey, why don't you take a look at these plans? I drew the furniture in each room but I'm not sure about all the placements...thought you might have some thoughts..." and just like that he took the plans and began studying over them. Luckily, Matt is typically oblivious to any cues I might have been giving off that anything was out of the norm, and any excitement he might have sensed would have easily been attributed to excitement over the new house. He took what felt like forever, studying each room carefully...asking me questions about this bed and that dresser. He finally got to THE room and chuckled to himself, and said, "A crib...you're silly." To which I responded, "Well, we are going to need it!" And Matt responds, "Yeah, someday..." (See? Oblivious!). Then I said, "Umm...in about 9 months!" I so wish I had recorded the moment somehow. He just looked at me with this look of disbelief. I think he actually had to sit down. He did lots of big breaths and stared at the table with big eyes and said. "Wow." Something resembling a smile seemed to appear across his face as he was hit with all the thoughts and emotions that I had already felt earlier...He didn't think it was going to happen...And now with the new house....and of course, thinking of the impact financially (as dads tend to do...).
I was thrilled that I was able to surprise him and once the shock wore off, he was excited, too. Nervous, but excited. We decided to wait a while to tell the boys (and everyone else) for a few weeks until we heard the heartbeat and felt more confident sharing the news. Boy was that hard!
Three weeks later came Easter. I had just had an ultrasound and heard the heartbeat and we decided to surprise the boys with the news. We did a scavenger hunt for them and I hid different little baby items in Easter eggs...a pacifier, baby food, baby shampoo, etc...We sent them all over the house with clues and once they found all the eggs, they opened them and had to guess the big surprise. Jack was thrilled, as he has wanted a new baby for a while. Owen was a little more reserved, but he IS my baby now...so I wasn't surprised.
Knowing that this is the last time that we will get to share news like this, it was extra special and extra sweet. And so we settled into our new chaos of preparing for a baby and for a move...of course, there was one small detail. We still needed to sell our house that was now definitely feeling crowded with one more on the way...
So since our "guest" bedroom would soon be occupied by a new little member of our family, I thought we might need to rethink our plans for furniture there. This was the perfect opportunity to sneak in some news that Matt wouldn't be expecting. I took our house plan and drew little furniture drawings in all the rooms upstairs (complete with a crib and changing table in the "guest room") so that I could, um..."get his thoughts on furniture placement" for the new house. Once I got everything just right, I watched the clock tick the minutes by until it was finally time for Matt to arrive home.
 |
| The plan that I used to share the big news with Matt...see the baby furniture in Bedroom 4? |
I was thrilled that I was able to surprise him and once the shock wore off, he was excited, too. Nervous, but excited. We decided to wait a while to tell the boys (and everyone else) for a few weeks until we heard the heartbeat and felt more confident sharing the news. Boy was that hard!
Three weeks later came Easter. I had just had an ultrasound and heard the heartbeat and we decided to surprise the boys with the news. We did a scavenger hunt for them and I hid different little baby items in Easter eggs...a pacifier, baby food, baby shampoo, etc...We sent them all over the house with clues and once they found all the eggs, they opened them and had to guess the big surprise. Jack was thrilled, as he has wanted a new baby for a while. Owen was a little more reserved, but he IS my baby now...so I wasn't surprised.
Knowing that this is the last time that we will get to share news like this, it was extra special and extra sweet. And so we settled into our new chaos of preparing for a baby and for a move...of course, there was one small detail. We still needed to sell our house that was now definitely feeling crowded with one more on the way...
Friday, September 21, 2012
Long overdue update...Part 1
I haven't blogged in such a long time! Which is completely a reflection on how much busier we have all been these past few months. But since life is about to get even crazier, I want to try and write about it both to keep those updated who are interested in what's new with us, and to record the events of the coming weeks and months. So hopefully, I'll be a bit more regular about updating, even if it's just a quick check-in.
So, back in March, we got the crazy idea to put our house on the market, just to see what might happen. Interest rates were dropping, our house was getting a little crowded with two growing boys, and the driving (about 15 minutes from town) was getting exhausting with ever busier schedules and higher gas prices. After searching for a possibility for a new house, we found a lovely little neighborhood right in the middle of our community, close to parks, the library, the grocery store, and Target (YES!!), closer to Matt's work, and closer to the boys' schools. It was beautiful, and we found just the perfect house plan to fit our family. We prayed and discussed and shared with family and friends and prayed some more, and decided to just see what happens. So far, our experiences have shown us that God will make His plans clear for us if we just let Him be in control.
We decided to go ahead and put a contract on a home, contingent on the sale of our current one. We had nothing to lose at this point, and just trusted that God would direct our paths. Well, just as we were making final changes to our contract on the new home, I got the most unbelievable, amazing surprise and found out we were expecting our third child! Although we have prayed for and hoped for and tried for this child for quite a while, we were both content with the fact that what we wanted may not be in fact what God had in store for us. We already have two amazing little boys, and so we had just given this desire to God and trusted that if it was meant to happen, it would. And if not, we were still beyond blessed with the life we have been given.
In the moment that I found out, I was beyond overjoyed. I remember just shaking with excitement and hope and awe at God's timing. Which clearly is so much better than ours. I'll never forget the overwhelming emotions I felt in that moment. I had about five minutes to myself while the boys had a snack downstairs, and I am so thankful for those first few minutes that I had alone with this new little life inside me and the One who created her. I prayed and I cried and I smiled so hard I gave myself new wrinkles and I looked at the little positive test about a thousand times just to make sure. It was a special moment that I will always treasure and can't wait to share with this little one someday how much we wanted and prayed for and loved her even before we knew she would be ours.
I needed to share the news with Matt, but I wanted to do it in a surprising and fun way--something I had not gotten to do with our other two babies, since we had been together when we learned we were expecting them. I tossed around several ideas, even googled some, and couldn't come up with anything that hadn't already been done or that just seemed to fit us. I knew it had to be something I could do quickly and easily, since there's no way I could keep this news to myself for very long. And then the perfect idea came along...and I'll tell the whole story in Part 2.
So, back in March, we got the crazy idea to put our house on the market, just to see what might happen. Interest rates were dropping, our house was getting a little crowded with two growing boys, and the driving (about 15 minutes from town) was getting exhausting with ever busier schedules and higher gas prices. After searching for a possibility for a new house, we found a lovely little neighborhood right in the middle of our community, close to parks, the library, the grocery store, and Target (YES!!), closer to Matt's work, and closer to the boys' schools. It was beautiful, and we found just the perfect house plan to fit our family. We prayed and discussed and shared with family and friends and prayed some more, and decided to just see what happens. So far, our experiences have shown us that God will make His plans clear for us if we just let Him be in control.
 |
| Our sweet little house that we loved. We went from a newlywed couple to a family of four in this house. Our boys smiled their first smiles here, said their first words, took their first steps...so many, many memories of our family were made here and it will always hold a very special place in our hearts. |
We decided to go ahead and put a contract on a home, contingent on the sale of our current one. We had nothing to lose at this point, and just trusted that God would direct our paths. Well, just as we were making final changes to our contract on the new home, I got the most unbelievable, amazing surprise and found out we were expecting our third child! Although we have prayed for and hoped for and tried for this child for quite a while, we were both content with the fact that what we wanted may not be in fact what God had in store for us. We already have two amazing little boys, and so we had just given this desire to God and trusted that if it was meant to happen, it would. And if not, we were still beyond blessed with the life we have been given.
In the moment that I found out, I was beyond overjoyed. I remember just shaking with excitement and hope and awe at God's timing. Which clearly is so much better than ours. I'll never forget the overwhelming emotions I felt in that moment. I had about five minutes to myself while the boys had a snack downstairs, and I am so thankful for those first few minutes that I had alone with this new little life inside me and the One who created her. I prayed and I cried and I smiled so hard I gave myself new wrinkles and I looked at the little positive test about a thousand times just to make sure. It was a special moment that I will always treasure and can't wait to share with this little one someday how much we wanted and prayed for and loved her even before we knew she would be ours.
I needed to share the news with Matt, but I wanted to do it in a surprising and fun way--something I had not gotten to do with our other two babies, since we had been together when we learned we were expecting them. I tossed around several ideas, even googled some, and couldn't come up with anything that hadn't already been done or that just seemed to fit us. I knew it had to be something I could do quickly and easily, since there's no way I could keep this news to myself for very long. And then the perfect idea came along...and I'll tell the whole story in Part 2.
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