Home is Where the Heart Is

I wanted to wanted to write about this in our Christmas letter this year, but, since I never actually wrote a Christmas letter this year, I figured I would write about it here! Our move was such a BIG part of our 2007...

WAY back in 2000, we purchased "the perfect little" 2 bedroom duplex - our first home! We were expecting our first baby, Madelynne; the house was just a hop, skip, and a jump away from school for Jason; we were also near the clinic and our church; even better, the house really didn't need much work at all - just what we were looking for!

Little did we know at that time that we within 4 years we would quickly become a family of five...suddenly two bedrooms didn't seem so perfect! We spent A LOT of time looking for a house. There were many ups and downs - we tried to sell our house on our own during the Spring/Summer of 2006 and made several offers on other houses that were, in turn, rejected. We know now that God was protecting us from buying a house at that time...His timing is perfect and he had something else in store for us!

In the Spring of 2007, we put our house up for sale again - newly updated kitchen and all - this time we decided to go with a realtor. Well, three days and ten showings later, we had three offers on the table to choose from. We were in shock that our little home sold so quickly! And, we were a little stressed out that we had not found a house to buy yet!!! Shortly thereafter, we made an offer on the home of a dear family we know that were making the move across the river. Madelynne had actually taken "Home Ec" class there all winter and was so excited that we would be moving into a house she was familiar with!

Since our closing date and their closing dates didn't quite match up, we found ourselves "homeless" for a few weeks. We packed up all our stuff (AHH...the "stuff" you accumulate in seven years/three kids!!!) and moved it out to a storage shed some friends from church kindly made available to us - thank you, Scott and Kelly! The kids and I spent a week "vacationing" over the 4th of July at my mom's house and our wonderful, gracious, and may I say VERY PATIENT friends, offered us their basement...where we GRATEFULLY lived for the next seven weeks! What an experience...they have three kids the same ages as ours, so ten people in one house (six of them age six and under!) might seem crazy - but we had a blast! Our families and friendships grew very close - we treasure that time so much. While we were there, we took ownership of our new home, had the beautiful hardwood floors refinished, replaced the furnace and added central air, painted, painted, and painted some more, and hired a contractor to finish the basement. THANK YOU, Kristi, for your countless, invaluable hours of painting walls and ceilings and cabinets (and arranging for a group of friends to join in a painting party, too!)...you are a TROOPER - and such an example of a friend that goes "above and beyond the call"!!! Remember how SORE our arms and shoulders and necks and feet were? OUCH!

On August 19th, we finally made our move. I have to admit, moving (even though it was just a few blocks away!) was hard for me. Change is hard for me. It was all so much more emotionally involving than I anticipated it would be! After all, we started our family in our first home - it held so many memories. I like things balanced and in order - and this was a lot of chaos and disorder! It was hard to transition to a new home...for the longest time, I felt like we were living in someone else's home. I had many tears and stresses. Everyone kept asking if we were "settled" into our house, and if was going to answer honestly, I'd have to say, "No, not really."

Our contractor, Perry (whom the kids just LOVED and enjoyed hearing him laugh and pound and drill each day - we like him, too - though not so much the hearing him pound and drill part!) finished up the basement shortly after Thanksgiving. We had our carpet installed January 7th and we are now able to utilize the basement space! I think I can FINALLY say we starting to feel at home...yes, even "settled"! We are so thankful to call this house our home.

The "old neighborhood"...

WHOA! This is what I call chaos!

Our new home!