Where have you been?
I feel like I haven't blogged in forever. I didn't even realize a month has gone by. I keep getting ideas for a great blog post and then I don't have much time to write it down. We've had so much going on, it's been a whirlwind. I will try and catch you up as best as I can.
I apologize for the lack of pictures, I will take some and get them up soon.
New House:
We have been all moved into our new house for about 4 weeks now. We still have boxes to unpack. It's getting done slowly but surely. I'm so relaxed here with all this space so it hasn't worn my nerves yet that all the unpacking isn't done. The new house really isn't all that big according to some standards, but to us it feels like a mansion. Our little condo we lived in for 6 1/2 years was 900 sq ft with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. It had no yard. We were blessed that we had a roof over our head and heat/cool when we needed it, but it was just way too cramped for our family. For about 4 months we squeezed into a mobile home that was even smaller than the condo and had only 2 bedrooms. This was our transition home while we looked for a house to buy that would be adequate for our needs. The Lord answered our prayers and gave us exactly what we had wanted. Our new home is 4 bedrooms, 2 story, 3, yes..3 bathrooms a large kitchen, a 2 car garage for Adam, a large yard and it's at the end of a court. It's nearly double the size of our condo and I am so overwhelmed with gratefulness to the Lord for His wonderful provision. The downside is that Adam has a longer commute to work. But, he said it's all worth it to have all of his girls in a nice house all day. Of course his garage makes it worth it too.
It seemed like we were just handed this house. We were looking for a few months, and had already put offers in on 5 other houses which we were denied. When our Realtor called the agent for this house he said that he already had a few cash money offers and we could see it but there really wasn't much point. As soon as we saw the house we knew it was perfect for us so we put in an offer anyway despite what the agent said. The next day our Realtor called and said they were accepting our offer. We were overjoyed. I think Adam offered $15,000 over what the house was listed at. Our next surprise blessing came after the appraisal was done and the house appraised for $15,000 less than we had offered (the exact original price). This was a foreclosure house and so it was being sold by a bank. The bank lowered the sales price down to match the appraisal, so we got the house for less.
During the loan process, I noticed that we were being grossly overcharged by the escrow company. The only reason I knew this, is from having been an Escrow Officer and working in escrow for 10 years. Otherwise we would have had no clue and paid more than we should. I contacted the escrow company and they refused to lower their fees. It was a little frustrating, but the real estate agent for the seller/bank was able to reduce a fee that ended up being 3 times less than what I was asking. This was another huge blessing.
There wasn't a whole lot of work that needed to be done with the house. We painted and painted and painted. The painting took a super long time and I'm glad it's over. I understand now why people hire painters. We also had to replace carpet in the upstairs. It's the only place that is carpeted. We went to Home Depot and received rude customer service and then were told that it would take weeks to get our carpet. We sort of waited to the last minute (our fault for sure) but they could have been friendly at least. We ended up visiting a family owned, carpet/kitchen/bathroom business in town and they gave my husband and incredible deal on some very nice carpet and padding. It was several hundred dollars less than HD would have been, and....they installed it 3 days later. The secretary at the store told my husband that they practically gave him that carpet. I always prefer to patronize family businesses rather than huge corporations anyway. Adam was so thankful for the generosity of the owner that he decided to run a huge $25,000 bathroom project through this store. I think the owner had no idea that by his kindness he would receive a frequent customer in Adam.
We are settling in nicely. Our neighbors are very friendly and there are a lot of children in the court here.
Other recent happenings:
We were invited to head out to Sacramento to Verity Baptist Church, Pastor Roger Jimenez. They had a special service with guest speaker, Pastor Steven Anderson, of Faithful Word Baptist Church from Tempe Arizona. We like to listen to Pastor Anderson's mp3 sermons and were excited to hear him preach in person. As I expected, his preaching was powerful. It was great to be able to meet Pastor Anderson in person and also to have the pleasure of meeting one of his sons.
Family:
All of the kids had the flu during the time we were moving back to their wonderful selves.
Homeschooling has been more relaxing now that we have space to put all of the stuff. The girls enjoy having more areas around the house to spread out their work. As I'm typing the little ones are happily riding their bikes in our back yard. It's a wonderful thing.
Me:
My body seems to be healed and back to normal after the baby loss. It took about a month to recover fully. I am praying that we will have some new (good) baby news soon. Please keep me in your prayers that my tubes would be healed. That was worse than I ever could have imagined. My heart still aches, and I'm sure always will. There is a very sweet woman at our church who is pregnant with her 11th child. She and I were about the same amount of weeks along. It kind of hurts my heart to hear her updates and see her progress. Please don't get me wrong, I don't have any bitterness toward her. It's just sad for me to know that that's where I would have been.
Another sweet woman at our church told me, time doesn't heal all wounds, God heals all wounds. That keeps me feeling better to know that in the wake of this terrible event, God is there.
I am working on a couple more posts and hope to have them up soon.
God bless.
