Sunny-Side Up: Ending Where We Started, (THE END)

Well...

Saturday... family fun day.

Sunday, the day we were still not supposed to be talking about where we were living, what we were doing, and what our next step was.

That is SO not our personalities and we knew the answer... it was clear and so we wanted to act on it.

After all of that...

We decided to stay in the same town... Justin would commute.

The end.

Almost.

We already sold our house, which was in fact a huge blessing for lots of reasons. So there was no going back there. So, let's just buy another house down the street, in the same neighborhood. In fact there are several that are lovely.

We did a drive around Sunday evening and scouted some options and then we set up an appointment with our realtor for the very next day.

But the next morning, we had a little visit to the local firehouse with our MOPS group where I got to share the news with some dear friends...

Was it really true? Were we actually staying?

Caden and Kaki had a great morning at the firehouse and I was affirmed that, in fact, this was the best decision for our family at this juncture... we had too much here to walk away from it for a shorter commute. Friends...

So after the firehouse and a fun lunch with friends we ran home for a quick nap and then back to a friend's house who offered to watch the kids while Justin and I went to make another offer... what we hoped would be our FIFTH and FINAL offer on a home.

So we set out... we looked at 5 homes in our neighborhood that day. We decided on one that had been on the market for quite some time. In fact it had been on the market for almost 700 days... yes, 700! For some reason it hadn't sold... it was brand new construction and was going to be a GREAT fit for our family and just right around the corner from our old house... not much would change.

Seeing as the house had been on the market for 700 days, we thought we'd have an easy time of it, until we drove up to look at it the second time and another potential buyer was there, taking pictures with their iPad, we knew that meant business. But we didn't worry, we put in our best offer and waited.

Our realtor called the next morning and said that after 700 days of being on the market in ONE day, which happened to be the SAME day we put in our offer on the house, THREE other offers came in... so that would be FOUR total offers on the house that had been on the market for 700 days.

Seriously????

Our realtor was pushing us to put in a higher offer, but we didn't want to, feeling very strongly that we did not want to max-out our budget any further than we were stretching it already and that if it was meant to be, it would surely be.

But we were pretty sure after that phone call that we would definitely lose the house.

So we were down to T-minus days, just days, before we had to be out of our current home. So maybe we'd rent in Georgetown.

We pulled up our MLS search again and again and drove by lots of different neighborhoods, trying to figure out where our next move might be... no luck. But there is and was this neighborhood that MANY of our friends live in, we've always loved it, it feeds into one of the best schools in the area... a different school from where our old home fed into. We had never truly considered living there for various reasons, but we thought hmmmm... let's take a look... see what was for sale. It would be fun! Kids... families... it would be completely different than what we had.

And then...

There was this house. It fell comfortably and intelligently within our budget, it met our most basic needs... it was smaller by almost 1000 sq ft, it didn't have many of the rooms we had in our old home, it was older, but not old, but it was charming and it backed up to the elementary school. It was down the street, around the corner and up the block from about 9 of our couple friends. So we decided to pull the trigger... this was it.

Before we ever looked at it... or even walked through its doors, we called our realtor, who had definitely thought we had finally fallen OFF our rockers, and told her we wanted to make an asking price offer on this home.

Without seeing it?

YES!

Full price?

YES!

Okay...

NUMBER SIX!!!

So she did it and the next day the seller's called her and told her they wouldn't accept our offer until we looked at the home... picky, picky! :) And naturally we would have seen the home, but we did it that morning, loved it as much in person as we did by the photos and then a few weeks later it was ours...

Done and done!

SIX!

From there it was a whirlwind...

Packing... garage selling... packing... moving... traveling... being homeless for two weeks, etc.

But none of it mattered because we were at peace... and that peace came with excitement and anticipation and lots of fun!

So truly, our ending was where we started...

It was a long, and at times stressful, painful, confusing road but we walked it, we survived it and we came out on the other side and we're in a good place. God knew this house was ours, He just had to wait for us to figure it out and we are so thankful that He continued to extend His grace throughout the process. We are so grateful He spared us from a mistake this time... so, so, so thankful!!

There are so many things about our new home that speak volumes to the ways in which God answered even our most minuscule desires. And we fully acknowledge that we are not deserving of any of it which makes it all the more special.

I am so grateful HE KNOWS... because I NEVER do! :)

So, once we had all of that drama drama drama settled it was time to get busy...

PACK UP, PACK UP, PACK UP!

On the way I found this...

Didn't even know I was in possession of it... FOURTEEN!