Raindrops & Blessings

If you've wondered where we've been since, well, March...here's what's been happening:

We decided in March to put our house on the market. It was more of a "let's see what happens in a month". We did a lot of clean out (I'm not a clutter person and our house had literally only one storage closet so it didn't take too long :) and the end of March our house was listed.

Backup a little bit...really struggled with the idea of selling our house. After processing all that I saw and learned in Africa it felt so selfish and worldly to even think of moving.

We would be looking to move for several reasons..many I felt justifiable. We really hoped to find an office space for my hubby to work in. He has been having to be on conference calls starting as early as 5am and there was nowhere in our current house for him to do that..which led to him leaving SO early for work and being gone 12 hours. We hoped to find a space that he could be on calls and not wake up the household but be home a little more in the morning.

We also have always prayed and hoped to someday end up in a home that would be a "ministry house" and a great place for kids to hang out as they got older and had more time with friends. We really want to be the house that kids like to come too and has space for them.

Fast forward to April..house was on the market 3 weeks and it sold. We had seen and hoped to buy a house that we loved but the sellers of that house accepted and offer the evening before our offer would have come through.

Closed door.

We spent SO MANY hours looking at houses. We hoped to offer on another house and found out the surrounding property had been sold to develop row houses literally surrounding us.

Closed door.

Found another great house. It had sat on the market a few weeks with no action. We make an offer..same day they receive another offer on the same house..they take the other offer.

Closed Door.

Find a house that is a short sale house, put an offer on it, but were told to wait at least 6 months to hear from the bank.

Half-way Closed Door :)

In the meantime, our house was closing and we needed a place to live. Our belongings all went into storage. We were also dealing with the emotional part of leaving the only home our kids had ever known. It was heartbreaking for them. They sobbed when we drove away...we all sobbed when we drove away. Back to reality though....We needed a place to live to at least get through the school year. Apartments were not allowing a short term rental b/c vacancy is so low b/c of the economy. Found a corporate housing company that would do a 30 day rental at an apartment. All they had was a 2 bedroom apartment. 6 of us in our tiny little home for 30 days. I won't lie...it was hard. I know families that are forced to do this every day. I did my best to keep my attitude positive and not complain. I didn't always succeed. We ended up with the stomach flu and terrible colds. Each weekend someone was sick..so our great plan to not spend very much time there on the weekends was shot.

But..bright spot. Found a great house 3 days after moving into the apartment. Made an offer and after a little negotiating it was accepted! Started getting excited about having a home to move to. A light at the end of the limbo tunnel. Made it through the 30 days of apartment life (so many funny stories of being there..some days were so bad they were comical) and the school year ended on June 10th. We moved everything out that was in the apartment and stuffed it into our storage unit and moved up to my parents house. Thinking that it would be to cover the 2 weeks til we could move into our new house. June 9th we found out that the appraisal done to complete the closing process did not support our offering price so the bank wouldn't underwrite the loan for more than the appraised price...yada yada yada...things started spiraling downhill pretty fast at that point.

Looked like a closed door.

Happy to say that 2 weeks later after many prayers, negotiations, long days and nights, we closed on the house and moved in. Our 2 weeks at my parents turned into 4 weeks but we finally had a home!

This is the house God had saved for us. After so many closed doors He made it clear this was ours and we feel so incredibly blessed to be here. It's been an amazing journey. We're finally coming up for air and getting reconnected as a family. (Hubby had to work 5 hours away from where my parents live and only saw us 2 days a week then went overseas for work the week after moving) I truly believe God led us down a path of highs and lows so we will be grateful...I don't see myself taking this space for granted and we pray that He uses our house for ministry and surprises us with how He has entrusted this space to us.

Lots to process...and a lot of things I didn't feel right about blogging. I did not want to sound ungrateful. We chose to sell our house. We never went without a place to live. We had amazing friends and family that got us through all the unsettled life we were given. It is my desire to use this chance of starting fresh to live intentionally...spend wisely and intentionally so that I can give back to the things that have broken and tugged on our heartstrings.