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Gratuitous shot of my cute kiddos, because what's a post without a picture?

Okay, so I'm still here. I even have projects to blog about. It's just that there have been such big things going on in my life that I can't seem to put them all into words. It seems hard to post about small things without talking about big things. But God has been moving here, and it is important that I talk about that.

So I've mentioned that we've been getting our house ready to list. And it's a process that has stretched out longer than we've wanted, but God's timing is in everything. There is a house that we had been looking at since January. We really liked it, and it had many, many of the things we want/need in a new home. A big garage for Nick, bedrooms for all the kids, a space for a craft room for me, even a bit of extra room for a play room. And it was close to the price we were looking for. We had been to view it inside a couple of times, and we were just waiting to get our own house on the market before we made an offer.

Finally, after talking to our Realtor (who was also their Realtor), he indicated that the homeowners would be open to a contingency offer since we were so close to listing. So we made an offer. And we waited. And they had another offer from another buyer. And they came back to both of us and asked us both to submit our very best offers. So we gave them our walk-away price, and we waited and prayed. And finally they decided - on the other offer.

And while we had prayed and prayed that God's will would be done here, whether or not that meant us getting this particular house, it was hard for me for a bit. Because I'm silly and human and imperfect and eventhoughIknowbetter, sometimes I get impatient with God. And this feeling sad and a little teary went on for about an hour.

Then Nick found a listing online that we had never seen before, mostly, I'm sure, because it had only been on the market for 9 days, and we were concentrating on the other house. It looked very interesting to say the least, and we decided to see if we could go see it the next day. As luck would have it, the owners were happy to let us come by.

The home is partially renovated, with most of the major work done, but there is still a lot to do. Most of it is relatively minor, tile installation, painting, etc, all things we can do ourselves, although there are a few bigger things still to be done too. A lot of work. A lot.

We fell head over heels in love. In. Love. We prayed about it, and we felt liberty to put in an offer. So I texted the homeowners to thank them for letting us look and tell them that we would like to make an offer. Then we called our Realtor to let him know. I think he was caught off guard, because this was just a day or two after he had to deliver the news that our offer on the other house had been rejected, but he was happy to contact the owners of this new listing for us.

Longish story shortish, the owners decided to accept our offer, even though we've not officially listed our house yet, and we have a signed contract! We also have 90 days (a bit less now) to sell our own home. We go to market next Monday, ready or not, and tomorrow we've got (hopefully) lots of help coming to knock out the last bit that we have left to do. Guys, I don't want to share too many details about the new house at this point, but I just have to say that it has things I never in my wildest dreams believed we would have. God is SO very good to us, ALL THE TIME, and He constantly amazes me with how He blesses us.

He's already moving us through this process, starting with the homeowners accepting an offer from us when we didn't even have our own house listed yet (and yes, they knew this). And today brought another big answer to prayer. One of the biggest things about the first house we were looking at that was not ideal for us was the high school it would have Taylor zoned for. It's not a bad school, but it's also not our first choice, or even our second or third. Our first choice is the high school attached to (like in the same parking lot as) the middle school she's in now, but due to the crazy zoning in our area, even if we stayed right where we are, next year she would go to a high school in the next community.

So a few months ago we put in a request for a transfer to our first choice high school. And to be honest, I wasn't holding out great hope that we would be approved. Transfers around here are notoriously hard to get unless you are a teacher zoned outside of your school of employment or your kid is highly involved in a school specific program. But we submitted the transfer request and prayed for the best. And it turns out that this house we have an offer in on now is zoned for the same high school as the first house we tried to buy. But we felt God telling us to put in the offer, so we were trusting that He had a plan for that too, whether that meant that He wanted Taylor there for a reason or whether He had another plan.

Today we got a letter in the mail telling us that Taylor has been approved to attend the high school we want her to attend! There are still hurdles to overcome, the biggest of which is going to be selling our house in the next two and a half months for the right price, but I believe that God's hand is in this as well, and we want to give Him all the glory for whatever comes out of this situation.

I can't see the whole picture yet, but I can see some of the ways He has been blessing us, guiding things with His hand and timing even when we've been impatient. If we had been able to get our house listed when we wanted to, we would have doubtless made an earlier offer on that first house. And it probably would have been accepted. That home was on the market for over a year before it sold, and the offers from us and the buyer they sold it to were the first offers they had gotten on it. When we lost it, I thought "Man! If we hadn't waited so long we would have gotten it!" And that's probably true. But that was not the house God had for us.

The house we have a contract on now is so much more perfect for us in so many ways, and it offers things I never imagined. And if we had gotten an earlier answer on that first house, we would have completely missed seeing this house, because they didn't even list it until the day after we decided to finally submit an offer on the first house. He kept us interested in and mentally committed to that first house until this one was ready. Even if we had been told no on the first house earlier, we might have tried to buy another house before this one became available, and we might have missed out! God always knows what's best for us, and, something that I think I sometimes forget, He always wants what's best for us.

So I can't say 100% for sure at this point that our house will sell in our time frame, but I can say that if it does not, if for some reason the path we are on suddenly veers to the left, God's hand will be on it. It won't be because it was just too big of an obstacle for Him to handle. He loves us, and He has a plan for our lives, and if He doesn't put us in that home, it's because He has something for us to do somewhere else, or even right where we are. And if we are where He wants us to be, wherever that is, it will be Home.