Closing time....

Well that's the song stuck in my head anyway.....though we haven't really closed on anything...but it sure is time to get OUT of our old house!
We've installed a new shower, painted a bathroom, patched holes, boxed up 3 truckloads of garage sale items, filled two 16 foot PODS, shampooed carpets and scraped ceilings.  All in 20 days or less!

NOW for the good stuff!
We've been living with my parents now since Easter Sunday, and they haven't kicked us out YET ;)
Thankfully we took our 'spring break' this week and we managed to sneak in a few fun outings while in the midst of packing, and househunting.  My kids are sorely off schedule...but what a gift to be able to take a break from school at such an appropriate time!

We were the only offer submitted for that first house I mentioned in the last post.  We were a day away from having our bid accepted,.......when we decided to cancel the bid.  A funny thing, our first offer, and it would have been SO easy to just go with the flow since everything was rolling along.  Instead we trusted the guidance we were receiving and we had a peace through all of our prayers, that this house would have been somewhere we 'settled on.'  

In the past week, as we've turned our life upsidedown, and then proceeded to hang on for the ride that is househunting......we've realized a couple of things:
 1. God has such great gifts for His kids (thanks for that quote- you know who you are!)
2.  We can't MAKE this happen, we instead need to surrender our will to HIS will...and be willing to wait.
3.  The simple things like dropping to the floor to play Polly Pockets with Talia....those are more important than running around looking for boxes.
4.  When we need them most, friends will come out of the woodwork to help!
5.  I can get really ugly when I have a cold, and I'm exhausted.....
6.  My husband has wellsprings of energy that allow him to start work at 5am and then come home and work on the house until midnight.  His selflessness is never really praised enough.  I adore him so.
7.  Our family is really great, and So uber dependable!
8.   We can fully underestimate the enormity of a process, and yet come through it unscathed and better for it.

I'd like to make this list an even 10 thougths...but I'm up way too late as it is.  It was that darn Starbucks at 9pm that did it!

We'll be out of our old home this week, and we do not currently have any offers out on a house. 
Our fantastic tenants will be painting rooms tomorrow, and I'm SO excited for their journey to begin as well.
Thank you for praying over our family.
This process has included many snafus ( me rear-ending a parked car because the boxes in my passenger seat were creating a blindspot) or spilt coffee drenching a 5 gallon bucket of white paint. 
But we're still laughing at each other, and praising God for His foresight to see us through this.
I pray you see Him in your circumstances today as well!