It really has been a while since I last blogged. I feel sad about it. Life sometimes takes off and all you can do is hang on for dear life and hope you don't get dragged through the mud or tumbled through the gravel and pray that you end up flying through the clouds because it really is much more enjoyable.
So, what happened in May that threw a monkey wrench into my blogging? Into my/our life/s?
We sold our house...
Had I mentioned our house was for sale?
Probably not.
It really is a good story that needs to be documented for the sake of our family at least.
It all started in January. A cold month when all life seems to be frozen into permanent stagnation.
MDH had a day off from work and we decided to take a drive through the neighborhoods of our town.
We didn't have any particular destination or agenda, just a fun drive in a warm car on a cold day.
When we came around a corner I saw a blue two story house with a "for sale by owner" sign in the front yard. I off handedly said to MDH, "Look there's our new house." Out of curiosity I called the number on the sign to find out if it would even come close to fitting our family and our budget.
Turns out it fit both....perfectly.
We made an appointment to view the house and fell in love.
It felt like it was supposed to be ours.
But still we weren't sure what to do. Our house wasn't for sale and not even close to being ready to list and the yard at the blue house was under a foot of snow. There was no way we could buy a house when we couldn't even get a good look at the yard.
Life moved on.
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| Kids with the Jazz Bear at a Weber State game. |
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| Spencer winning at the district science fair. |
The earth began to thaw and life started stirring.
MDH and I both felt it and we both felt prompted to check on the blue house again.
It was still available and the newly uncovered yard was perfect.
We made an offer and started making preparations to put our own house up for sale.
I started de-cluttering and painting, we ordered new carpet for the stairs and made an appointment with our real-estate agent.
Our house was listed the day after meeting with our agent and then the real adventure began.
Houses in our listing price range were in high demand and in the first week of having our house up for sale we had 16 showings.
Throw into the mix Easter weekend...
...Spring soccer, participation in a production of Crazy For You, track meets, school functions, strep throat, pneumonia, a new puppy as well as anything and everything else you can think of....Life was just CRAZY!
As all of those strangers passed through our door viewing the shell that kept our family warm and dry as just a house we continued to thrive in it as our home and build fun lasting memories.
Spring quickly rushed on to the beginnings of summer and we were sick of living with constant daily knowledge that someone new was going to be walking through our home.
Memorial Day weekend came and we decided that if we hadn't received an offer by Memorial Day we were going to take our home off the market.
We decided to spend the day with family at the Bohman Reservoir enjoying the early summer flowers.
As we were preparing for our outing we got word that an offer had been made on our home.
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| Flowers at the Bohman Reservoir (photo by Hannah) |
We decided to counter offer, basically our asking price and we pay closing costs.
Their original offer was so low we thought for sure they'd counter offer us and that would buy us time to talk to the owner of the blue house.
It was a good plan.
However, it didn't work.
They accepted our offer. Our house was under contract.
When we finally got a hold of the owner of the blue house he told us it was no longer available another family would be moving in on Saturday.
We were devastated. The other family would be renting until they could get a loan in August.
We told him we could close on the loan in a couple of weeks, we even passed on statistics provided to us by our agent about the likelihood of the rent to own situation not working out. (Something like 96% of the time they don't work even with substantial down-payments.)
But he went with the other family.
We then had to find a new house in just two weeks.
Talk about stressful!
Our agent was great and got us out looking the next day.
The first house he took us to we loved but we thought it was too expensive. He thought they might negotiate. We looked at other houses but decided to make an offer on the first one our agent had shown us. It had felt right and like it could be a good place for our family.
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| photo via google maps street-view. |
After some negotiations we finally were able to get a contract on the house. (Interesting side note our agent picked out our last house for us too. I guess he knows his stuff)
In the days that followed signing the contract on the house we were off to participate as a Ma and Pa on Pioneer Trek with the youth from our ward. Hannah, Josh and Spencer were able to go as well.
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| Our Trek Family, the Flyin' Bison |
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| Our real life family |
Trek was an amazing experience and deserves a post of its own. Even now when I think of those days I get a little emotional.
Yes, trek was hard and physically tiring but it was emotionally and spiritually filling. It was exactly what we needed and when we needed it, because the weeks leading up to trek had been so stressful and emotionally exhausting
We were able to leave our earthly worries behind and focus outside of ourselves on the children in our trek family and partake of the spiritual feast that was set before us.
Selling our home and moving has been such an emotional roller-coaster. When we walked through the blue house we both felt inspired that it was to be our home and it would be a place that our children would thrive and be happy and that the Lord had guided us there. The owner at one point even told us that he felt like we should be in that house.
But then when the owner refused to sell it to us we were frustrated and confused. We questioned if we had mis-understood the promptings from the Holy Ghost or if we had done something wrong and were being punished. We just didn't understand.
During all of this time every time I prayed I felt a deep peace and the feeling that everything was going to be ok. My main concern was our children. I wanted to be settled in a home where our kids felt welcomed in the neighborhood, where they could have a little bit more positive experience associating with their peers at church and where we all felt loved and needed. The Lord kept telling me, every time I asked, everything was going to work out. He didn't tell me how or where it would work out just that it would.
On fast Sunday (the first Sunday of the month we go without food (fast) for two meals and donate the money we would have spent to the church to be used for those who need it) I was fasting and praying that we would be able to find a new home one of the hymns we sang that day was Be Still My Soul. I've always loved that hymn and its message but that day the Spirit witnessed to me that those words were true and were meant for me on that day, particularly verse two. I couldn't hold back the tears. (I may or may not have ugly cried in church that Sunday.)
Be Still My Soul
hymn #124
1. Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;
With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend
Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend
Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
2. Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.
3. Be still, my soul: The hour is hast'ning on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
Text: Katharina von Schlegel, b. 1697; trans. by Jane Borthwick, 1813-1897
I remembered with clarity how He had scooped my family out of Reno and placed MDH in a job here in Utah that would provide for us securely during a time when so many through-out the country were struggling.
I remembered how he had inspired me with medical knowledge and the ability to help our children when they were sick and needed it most.
I remembered all of the many miracles I have seen Him work in my life and in the lives of those I love.
I remembered His hand in the lives of my ancestors, the early Latterday Saints.
I remembered His hand in the lives of those in the scriptures and I remembered that He is unchangeable and loves me as His daughter, He would not forget me or my family now.
And it was with those sacred remembrances and confidence in His loving care that I was able to move forward and take a step into the dark and wait for the light to follow.
And a brilliant light did follow.
That's not to say that everything was strawberries and cream after that in regards to moving but it did make it easier.
There were a few glitches along the way;
not getting our loan rate locked in when we thought and having rates go up,
having the people who were selling us this house forget to sign a paper so we couldn't record and get keys when we wanted,
telling the buyers of our old house we would be out by 1pm on Saturday but having them show up at 10am ready to start moving their stuff in,
having them move in while we were moving out
not having the house clean the way I wanted
not getting to say goodbye to the old house and not having a few moments to gain closure on that time of our lives.
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| town 4th of July water fight, the day before we moved |
There were also some beautiful things that happened;
family and friends helping endlessly and tirelessly
service freely given above and beyond what I could have ever hoped for by true friends
our boys working like men
Hannah being my right hand
the relief society/friends cleaning our house while we moved out (even my toilets)
being welcomed with open loving arms into our new neighborhood.
Hannah's friend from school and her dad (our new Elder's quorum president) showing up at 10:30 at night to help us unload long after everyone had left.
Who's to say why things worked out the way they did? There is no doubt we felt strongly about moving to the blue house. Possibly it was to motivate us to put our house up for sale so we would ultimately end up where we are now. I'm just not sure.
What I do know is we are never forced to make any one choice. We followed the promptings we received and did what we felt was right. The owner of the other house was free to make his own choices. As long as we were doing what we knew to be right the Lord blessed us.
So here we are, truly blessed yet again. This has been a good move. We love our new home and the memories we are making here. The kids have felt welcomed and appreciated at church and in the neighborhood and that's really what we ultimately wanted for them.
We have a much larger yard and MDH couldn't be happier. There is room for chickens, a garden, a fire-pit and room to explore.
I've joked that my next move is across the street to the cemetery. Only I hope it's not a joke, moving is just plain hard no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
P.S. Interestingly, we received word last week that the blue house is up for sale again. For whatever reason the other family never closed their loan last August. Hmmm. The friend who passed word on to us is also an acquaintance of the owner of the blue house. She made sure to pass on that we are extremely happy where we are and we've even christened the stairs.
It's what we do when we have a few extra large moving boxes and some stairs laying around.
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