Househunting

I wish I would have taken the time to blog the other day...as I was full of so much excitement and was having one of those 'perfect' days that are so rare...one of those days that everything was falling into place...it was wonderful! I was so excited that I couldn't even sleep...

For about 2 weeks, we had spent hours upon hours the days and nights searching the internet for a house. We are thankful to have such wonderful tools nowdays... we can read descriptions, view pictures, check bird's eye and aerial views of the areas...it really is fun, yet so time consuming. It was easy to rule out homes that backed up to main streets, or homes that the backyard was just a swimming pool..no grassy areas, or maybe too near power plants or railroad tracks. Then came the the neighborhood drive bys... we spent several afternoons/evening driving around the areas we liked to get a feel for things. After this, we composed our list. Ricky was very excited about a couple, and I was very excited about a different couple. We sent our list to the realtor who returned it with the status of each house. This quickly reduced our list, as some were already sold.

Then came the househunting; we set out Tuesday afternoon. It was actually so discouraging. It was hard to even come close to finding something that we even liked, much less loved. I couldn't imagine paying over $100K more for something than we already lived and loved. I started having some serious doubts about wanting to move and wondered what we were thinking to sell our home. We reviewed our reasoning... better schools, little bigger house, etc. We knew God had worked so intricately to take care of all the little details and made the home sale sooo smooth, we knew He must have intended for it to happen. So that night we put Derick to bed and once again spent hours searching the internet. We figured we better readjust our criteria...maybe give in a little on size, up our price, and/or expand our ideal areas. We composed a second list and sent it off to our realtor.

Wednesday afternoon was a little better. We definitely saw much nicer homes (probably to do with our pricing search increase), there were a couple that were decent and worth considering, yet failed to feel drawn to any particular one. Thankfully I have a husband who is so patient in this area and said we will not settle...that would be better to put things in storage and wait for the right house. I on the other hand was losing sleep and wondering where we would be living in another month. I was addicted to home searching, feeling jittery, ignoring my child, whatever I could do to help our search..., yet I knew Ricky was right. I began repeating verses in my head...and sometimes even out loud when I would catch myself worrying... "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding...." Trust, Trust, Trust. I gave it all up to God, knowing He really was in control and all my worrying really wasn't going to get us anywhere.

Thursday came and I had a busy day planned. Derick had swim class and did so well, I was soo proud of him. We had lunch with friends then came home to try and get him back on nap schedule after missing it for a few days househunting. I started searching the internet again...as my work was pretty quiet and I had some free time. I used a map and thought I would search some new areas. One stood out to me that I hadn't seen before in an area that I had been checking on a daily basis (Val Vista Lakes...the place Ricky and I got married..) Sure enough it was new listing that just popped on the market that day. I called our realtor and asked if we could see it. He had only about 10 minutes before he had to meet another of his client's so I said we would take it. I called Ricky to meet us there, then woke up Derick and we saw this house. We were seriously there for 5 minutes and both Ricky and I said we really liked it and that we would like to make an offer on it. Later that night we signed the paperwork and then I started thinking..we seriously spent 5 minutes in a place we may live for years??!! Kind of a crazy thought, but we will see how it all plays out. Since is a bank foreclosure, it may take until next week to even hear back. While we keep talking like it is ours and spent some time at Home Depot today pricing out some of the projects we would do, yet we know not to get our hopes up too much until we know.

It is so awesome and peaceful to believe in a God who already knows where he will lead us...and if not to this house, He has something else in store. I spent some time reflecting back on when Ricky and I were searching for this home. There was one that we both really liked and wanted to make an offer on, but our realtor did not agree with us. I remember being disappointed. But after another day of searching we found our current home and loved it...and then were so thankful for all this one had to offer that the other one really did not. We know it will work out according to HIS plan... so we will wait patiently for a couple more days, then resume the search if needed :)