Thankful Thursday - Welcome Home G Family, Welcome Home

I really, really wanted to post a Thankful Thursday post this week but I was so preoccupied googling various combinations of "vomitting behavior" and "preschooler throw-up control" (another post entirely, but I think you get a sense for it here; actually after looking at it I can't BELIEVE I didn't mention the vomit, but anywho you can gather the cause) that I couldn't get myself to think of something beyond the generic "I'm grateful for everything" line, which I certainly am but didn't quite fit my intentions.


How's that for a really long, run-on sentence?

As my husband and I were talking last night and realized that a year ago today (or yesterday, depending if you're considering dates or days of the week) we closed on our new home. We began the process of moving WAY back in November 2009, spent a crazy week trying to get our home ready to be put on the market for sale, and then another 6 months waiting for something to happen. We hadn't really been looking for a new home. I happened to drive down a street that parallels the main street in our neighborhood just because and found a home for sale that fit our desire perfectly. It was much larger than our previous home (double the size), but the biggest thing was the land - it's on an acre with lots of trees - growing up in LA we strongly desired to have land to roam. I know, not "country" for folks in the big D, but it's country for us. And yet within a community so we still have neighbors and all. We decided to go for it quickly and see how things went.

We needed to sell our home to have a sizeable enough down payment to make us happy.

The home market was SLOW, and as we found out, REALLY SLOW during the holidays.

So for 5 months we went back and forth - should we stay (and have the possibility of getting to be a stay-at-home mom sometime) or should we go forward with the purchase. Oh man we waivered and waivered and waivered. 4 months into the process we had our first foster placement, which showed us that we could definitely do it in our old home, but with the age of kids we had we really wanted to have the playroom concept. We made the decision to back out of the new home purchase several times. Everytime we did we'd have a showing pop-up...immediately. One time we were out in the backyard, said ok we have a decision, and then walked inside to hear the phone ring. There hadn't been a showing in weeks but right now there was someone wanting to come by. So we always gave it that "one more shot" and stopped short of signing the cancelation papers.

We both received bonuses in April that gave us the money we needed for a down payment without having to sell our home. (The day we found out about the bonuses we also received word that our license had been approved; it was a good day). It would have been really comfortable to stay in our current home with that cash on hand. It would have been a little bit tight to move into our new home. God told us to move.

So we made the leap. The next day my boss gave me an unexpected raise out of the blue - enough to cover the difference in the mortgage completely. Mind you, that was a 15% raise or something like that, for no particular reason, in one of the worst economies ever. More confirmation we were moving in the right direction despite the fact that I knew it limited my chances of being a stay-at-home mom.

Our original house hadn't sold. We decided to move forward anyway, very nervous about what would happen with our other home...it's a good economy for landlords but if anything about this process was true it was that our plans didn't seem to be working our way.

Within a week a friend-of-a-friend gave me a call - turns out the friend had told her we were looking to rent out our place and she was in immediate need. She needed our home the day after we were scheduled to close on the new home. It's been a perfect match since. Everyone tells us we're blessing her with the arrangement, but we know different - we are the ones who are blessed. God had a plan for that house, which included perfect timing we could never have predicted.

Fast forward 2.5 weeks, a year ago today (or yesterday), we signed papers to buy the new home.  Friends gathered that night and helped us move the big stuff - we spent one more night in our old home.  Then we had 365 days loving our new place.  See?

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
We are so thankful how it all worked out.
 
I will admit though, this move was extremely positive for us, but it is tied to one of the most difficult seasons of our life.  I am very nervous about what the next few weeks have in store for me and our family...almost in a PTSD fashion.  I fear the end of May - beginning of June very much.  I am tearing up and feeling the effects of stress just thinking about facing next week.  My intention is to honor that time by writing posts on each event, as they happened to us.  Maybe reliving them a little bit might help. 
 
If you think about it, pray for me, my family, and my friends family over the next few weeks.  I'm hoping that peace and tranquility abound, that we can grieve appropriately, and experience a trauma free few weeks so that we can reclaim these days for God's glory in our heads and hearts instead of letting them forever be so traumatic.

Here we are, saying goodbye as a family, to our old house (excuse our appearance, we had just finished deep-cleaning the entire place, carpet cleaning and all.  We were tired!).