New House and Better Luck

Well, the original house we offered on fell apart. The bank came back with a price increase of $7000. We probably would have met the offer and continued forward but they made it clear that it could take at least another 45 days just for them to get the "approval." We would still have to move forward with inspections and closing and we were looking at the end of May at the soonest for taking possession. We decided to back out of the deal while we still had time and make a last ditch effort to find a different house. We spent all day Friday with only so-so results and we found out the house we were going to make an offer on had already had someone offer before the day was even done! It was not looking good for our chances and we were starting to come to the realization that maybe this wasn't the right time for getting a house. However, we had a few more houses to look at Saturday morning. We found a house that we are really excited about! It is even more beautiful and I like the location better than the first house. If the market wasn't terrible right now there is no way we could have afforded this house. It is that nice. We just finalized the details today and a contract is accepted by both parties. In order for us to close by the end of April, we still have a lot of things to accomplish. Foremost being the inspection. Please pray that we will get an inspector to agree to come out Thursday or Friday even though it doesn't give them much notice. So things are looking up finally but I don't think I will feel like it is really real until I have keys in my hand. I posted the link on facebook if you want to see pictures. If you click on the video tour you will get a few more pictures which includes the upstairs and bathrooms.

Craziness

Well, this past month has had its share of ups and downs. I'm very ready to have the bad luck hit someone else for a while. The house is proceeding. That is about all I can say. We gave them an extension to March 31st. If we haven't heard that they are making significant progress by that time, then we are going to back out and find a new place to rent for a while. We turned in our 60 day notice to our apartments. They are not willing to work with us at all regarding the deadline for us moving out so one way or another we will be out of these apartments by April 27th. We are really praying for God's timing to work out perfectly so we can close the house in early April and just move from our apt to the new house. But we'll see.

I had a visit from Child Protective Services a couple weeks ago. 2 police officers and 1 caseworker came into the house to question us about Evie's birthmark that was reported as a bruise. I was freaked out and devastated. It didn't help that my house was just thrashed because we had been extremely busy and Sam had a big ole shiner from an accident at the dinner table. I cooperated fairly calmly and they left after about an hour. For some reason, this visit just devastated me. Every time I thought about it I broke out in tears and just couldn't hold myself together. I knew logically that they have to follow up on these reports and I luckily had doctor's documentation regarding Evie's birthmark so I knew it wouldn't go anywhere. But, for some reason the whole incident was attacking me spiritually. 2 nights later I found myself lying in bed with my heart just racing and tossing and turning thinking about worst case scenarios. I finally just started praying and praying. I fell asleep praying and woke up with peace of mind and a calm heart. I can honestly say that was the first time I unequivocally knew and felt God move in my life. It was such a relief to deal the situation with a calm mind. A few days later I received a call from our doctor indicating that he contacted the caseworker and I received a call from the caseworker a couple days ago letting me know that the case will be closed once she finishes up the paperwork. I'm so glad I thought ahead and had the doctor place notes in her file about the birthmark. That thinking ahead made this whole thing get finished up quickly.

After all that, I was looking forward to my shipment of homeschool materials that I ordered. They finally arrived Friday, or so I thought. We noticed that box was crushed and one end was torn open. We finished opening the box to discover the the post office delivered an empty box. Over $200 of product was missing. I followed up with the local post office and they said they noticed it as well but it arrived here like that. So the accident happened somewhere in transit. The postmaster gave me a phone number to a facility that all Loose In the Mail items get sent. I've called a couple times and got no response. I finally called the main USPS customer service line and they opened an inquiry for me. I should know within a couple business days if they found my items and if I will be able to retrieve them. I also contacted the supplier. Luckily, they told me that if the post office can't find the items, they will resend them to me. I may have to pay another insurance fee or something though. Gah! More money out of pocket.

After all this drama, I was ready to do something fun. Dwayne suggested we break out the Geocaching stuff and see how many "treasures" we could find. After checking out the website, we discovered 3 geocaches around my normal 2 mile loop. So we took a walk and found 2 out of 3. I had forgotten how much fun we have doing that and intend to do it more often again.