Home, Sweet Home!!!

Today was our big move!  We will be spending our first night in our new house tonight as a family.  The move went incredibly well.  We are so blessed to have had help from family and friends - we couldn't have done it without all of them.

Last night, the girls got to spend the night with their Grandma Betty and Grandpa Dave while Ben and I powered through packing and getting ready for today.  While I really missed my sweet little girls, it was great to be able to just focus on packing and know my girlies were getting lots of love from my parents.  I am so grateful to all the help they have been for our family this summer and always.

Ben's parents were a huge help to us as well.  They gave us a housewarming gift of new carpeting in the whole house and as if that was not enough they have also taken over cleaning up the old house to help get it ready for our new tenants.  We are certainly blessed to have great parents and we are thankful for all they do.

The move itself went very well.  Ben and I got everything all onto the main level of the old house before everyone came and we were all loaded and heading to the new house before noon!  The unloading went very smooth and pizza was delivered right as the last box was being carried into the house.  Lunch was a welcome break for fellowship and resting our sore muscles after all that heavy lifting!

We were blessed again when friends from our church mini-congregation stayed even longer to help unpack a few boxes and make sure all our beds were assembled so that when we needed to crash we could.

My mom helped to by watching the girls all day and by the time she brought them to us their rooms were all set up and it was dinner time.  We ate the leftover pizza and then the girlies enjoyed exploring their new rooms and the rest of the house.  Another blessing was how easily they went down for bed in a new environment for them.

God is definitely doing great things for our family and we are so excited to see what He has in store for our family as it grows.  Moving into our new home is a big step as we begin the adoption journey.  Hopefully once we are all unpacked we can begin the homestudy and continue on this amazing journey!  We are so grateful to everyone who has helped to make this portion of the journey a reality.

Sold!

Today we officially closed on our new home!!!  Despite a small snafu with our homeowner's insurance yesterday, we managed to get through closing today and the house is officially ours!  After closing, Ben and my dad built the new swing set in the back yard - something that will come in handy tomorrow as the girls and I hang out all day while new carpet is being installed.

We even had our first family meal together at the new house with pizza on the deck.  While the girls were playing on their new swing set our next door neighbors came out to meet and greet us.  We are excited for the move Saturday and for it to start really feeling like home!

Praise God for this step as we continue to look towards adopting!  God is great and He has blessed us beyond measure!

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.

We have a closing date!!!

Praise God!  We officially have a closing date on the new house!  After waiting 4 1/2 months we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and actually begin packing. :) We plan to close on August 14th and hopefully move into the new house that following weekend.  I am thankful this can happen before I head back to teaching in the fall - it will give us a couple weeks to unpack and settle in.  The sellers have even said we can begin moving items in the garage late July/early August since we have been waiting so long. 

I am most thankful to be taking a step forward towards the adoption.  We plan to settle in a bit (and recover from purchasing a house financially), but then we can start the home study process.  I pray for all my children daily - the ones who are living with me now and the ones we hope to welcome into our family in the future.  I anticipate the day we grow our family through this adoption with hope and dreams.  We will continue to trust in HIS timing.  This has definitely been a year of transitions, but God has been a part of it all.

Summertime!

I love that being a teacher allows me summers off with my kids.  I get time for slower mornings, fun adventures and even the chance to check some things off the "to do" list.  Yesterday we had a wonderful trip to the zoo, just us girls.  We ate lunch while waiting for the Sparky Show, checked out the animals and ended the trip with a nice surprise that it was Free Monday for the carousel - I happened upon it yesterday, but found out it happens every 3rd Monday in June, July and August so we will probably making a return appearance :)  Here are a few pictures of our much welcomed stress-free day:

I am so blessed by these two sweeties and am also continuously amazed by all the new things they are learning.  Shannon spends her days making art projects as gifts for the rest of the family, reading books to ME, and just yesterday I taught her how to tie her shoes.  Today she woke up begging to tie shoes again today and promptly borrowed one of her daddy's shoes, slipped her foot inside and tied the shoe all on her own with no help or reminders from me.  Amelia has decided she is too big for me to dress her anymore and insists on putting all her clothes on herself - including her big girl underwear since she is now potty trained.  She wakes up with a smile and a snuggle almost everyday and loves to copy her big sister.  I love how much they love each other and play so well together (that's not to say they always get along). 

I'm also dreaming about what future summers will be like as our family grows and the adventures they will have together :)

A change of events

After the news Monday about the bank wanting more for the Chaparral house in Apple Valley than we originally wanted to pay we spent the next few days looking at several other houses on the market.  None of them felt like "home" and the next best option was one that would take a significant amount of elbow grease and money.  We came home a bit discouraged, and decided to ask our mortgage lender to run the numbers on the new bank offer for the Chaparral house.  Turns out with interest rates as low as they are now, it really wasn't a huge increase from the monthly amount we had planned for. 

We still weren't 100% sure if we wanted to go back to it with the increased price so Ben and I dressed the girls in their jammies after dinner, hopped in the car and drove by about 5 or 6 houses that were "possibilities" ending at the Chaparral house - many of which we had already been inside earlier with our realtor.  We prayed for God to give us direction and peace about which house should be home, or possibly to wait for one we hadn't seen yet.  Some houses we were able to rule out immediately without getting out of the car, others we walked around the property.  When we finished at the Chaparral house, we each took turns walking around it.  As we drove away we asked how we each felt.  Ben went first and said exactly how I was feeling as well: "That is home, and it gave me a great sense of peace when we pulled up to it."

While it isn't the price we planned on, it is within our budget.  I can't help but think back to the Sunday we announced in church the sellers had accepted our offer and a woman in front of us (who we'd never talked to before that Sunday) found us after church.  She gave us the bag of coins and said she felt like God wanted her to give them to us to remind us that saving for the adoption process, including purchasing a new home, won't be easy but God will always provide.

This decision just feels right and both Ben and I are at peace with God's timing and plan.  Currently we are looking at a possible closing date in August and then we can move forward with the home study process to bring our future children home someday.  I look forward to seeing how the rest of this adventure unfolds :)

And the search continues...

So, things have not exactly gone according to our plans recently.  We found out two days ago we are not getting the Chaparral house in Apple Valley - the bank for the short sale came back and wants 32K more than the listing price, even though we already offered 15K above asking price.  It was difficult news to hear, especially after 4 months of waiting and dreaming up decorating ideas, but we are reminding ourselves that must not be the house God wants us to be in. 

In addition to the news about losing the house we wanted, we've also been dealing with major issues in our rental property in Sleepy Eye involving completely gutting the basement from 8 inches of sewage backup.  Long story short, it has been a stressful last 2 weeks and we are ready for some good news.  I am trying my best to trust in God's plan and timing and remember He sees the bigger picture. 

My "silver lining" has been my summer days home with my sweet girls.  Whenever I've been close to tears Shannon or Amelia, or both, have somehow managed to do something that makes me smile.  They are definitely two amazing blessings in my life, as well as my handy hubby who is plugging away at all the repairs for the Sleepy Eye house.

I could, and honestly have been tempted to, sit and wallow in our bad news streak.  My heart aches for our future children and I am eager to officially start the adoption process so we can bring them home.  This past couple of weeks feels like we are moving backwards.  Fortunately, though, there are also so many wonderful things surrounding my life and I am choosing to focus on the countless blessings God has given this family and cast my cares upon Him.

So for now, we continue the hunt for the right house and wait to see what adventures God has in store for us as we look to grow our family.  We are praying for wisdom and guidance in this process and for protection and care for whoever it is that our future children will be.