Crunch Time!

We are officially less than a week away from closing on our new home!  I am so excited and equally exhausted as we are preparing for this move.  I will be happy when we are all moved in a (maybe) life will be a little less hectic.  This has definitely been a whirlwind of a summer, but we are so blessed through it all.

June came with horrible news from our renters that they had flooded the entire basement 8 inches deep with sewage (something we are still battling) and learning we might have to walk away from the new house.  However, it also brought fun days home with my sweet girls and ended with continued waiting for a closing date on the new house.

July was definitely busy!  I was teaching Spanish to Spanish speakers Summer school to 5th graders and the girls got to spend 4 days a week with their Grandpa Dave.  It was so wonderful seeing how happy they were to spend that extra time at their grandparents house and I really enjoyed my group of kiddos at summer school.  Midway through July we got the news we'd been waiting for since the end of February - an official closing date on the house!  That news put us in overdrive to begin all the preparations for moving.  Something we knew was coming, but did not feel concrete until the actual closing date was set. 

Since we are renting our current house, our first order of business was to prepare the house for showings to prospective tenants.  I listed the house on Craiglist and within 48 hours we had 8 showings scheduled!  The very last day of July brought us the final showing with our future tenants and the lease was signed two days later.  Whew!  It was definitely a relief to know that was taken care of, and we then put our focus on packing.

With August here, we are packing, packing, packing!  Shannon has K Camp this week at her new school, so I decided to send Amelia to daycare while she is there so I can focus on getting everything sorted into boxes.  We only have a few more days until we head to WI to see my Aunt and Uncle at "Musky Camp" - a trip that was planned well before we had the closing date.  While it feels a little weird to be going out of town right before moving, I think it will be a welcomed break from all the craziness that packing and moving entails.  I am excited to have some relaxed family time :)

Next week we close on the house and move the following Saturday.  Already, next week is filling up with carpet installation, TV installations and minor projects before we have the BIG MOVE.

Life may be a little crazy right now, but I am so blessed by all that God has given our family.  From the opportunity to buy a new home big enough to adopt two or more kiddos to countless small blessings from family and friends.  I don't want to lose focus of how big I'm blessed in all this craziness, nor do I want to miss out on those small mommy moments with the girls.

You can tell the girls are excited and also a bit uncertain about everything.  Shannon has even come to me a few times to say "Mommy, I'm worried about moving" :(  But, when I remind her we will still be together as a family and all the nice things about the new house she gets excited again.  Little Amelia is confused by all the changes, but her smiles and giggles bring us joy even when the stress levels are high.  They have both been amazing through all of this and I love listening to them play together.  I am definitely a blessed momma.

In addition to my two little blessings, I am also so blessed to have Ben through all this.  He has been working tirelessly at work and home to get us through the move, the Sleepy Eye rental horror and everything else.  We just celebrated 8 years of marriage and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us and our growing family.

God is so good and I definitely want to be sure I take time to praise Him for all He has given us even through all the crazy busy days we've had and have to come.