Yes, we're moving. The people who just put in plush new carpet and painted the entire house. The people who finally got granite counters in the bath. The people who said that a four bedroom house was more than enough room. The people who claimed they would be buried in the backyard.
What happened? Honestly, we're still trying to figure it all out.
This summer was tough for our family, and Ashley in particular. She had a lot of friend drama, and started to find herself the object of gossip from all sides. We started joking that our family ought to move over to another ward to avoid it. It was mostly just a joke, but a few times we stopped and asked ourselves if maybe we ought to do it. But we always concluded that the grass isn't greener on the other side and if you are moving to run away from problems, you will be disappointed. So we decided to enjoy our recent remodel and our summer.
August 22nd: I put together a reunion of many current and former members of Reedville Ward. The turnout was awesome and it was so fun seeing everyone again. For some reason that night, I decided to go pull a couple of flyers on homes nearby.
August 24/25th: Then I decided over the next few days that I needed to go look at them so that I could say for sure that I am happy where I am. I don't know how I got Jesse to agree to go look at them, but we did.
The first house was blech. Not even worth considering. The second house, though, was a dream house. It looked straight out of a magazine. It felt warm and welcoming, and I fell in love. Enough to think that we ought to move. It was the perfect house to me. But if we were going to buy it, we'd need to sell ours -- and in the current market that was a long shot.
August 27th: We talked to a couple of realtors and the day before we left for Sun River we signed the papers to put our house on the market. Jesse was very hesitant about doing it, but somehow I convinced him that we needed to do it. If we waited until after Sun River, it would push us out a couple of weeks -- and I didn't want to lose my dream house. So we did a crash course in home staging, and left on vacation.
September 1st: The realtor got things going, and we were live on the market. We also offered on the dream home while we were on vacation, but the owners were standing firm on their (above market) price. I wanted to go ahead and offer higher, but after some great advice from our realtor, we backed off and decided to wait until our home sold.
September 6th: We got home on Labor Day, and the following day was the first day of school. We hadn't had any showings over the long weekend, but that wasn't that surprising. I figured we could take it easy on Tuesday as well, since people would be busy getting kids back into routines again. Wrong. We got a call for a showing that afternoon. After 90 minutes of frantic cleaning, we were ready to show. The realtor told us to expect them to be there 10-15 minutes. When we came home 45 minutes later, they were still talking outside our home.
September 7th: The next day we had no showings. But that evening we had a solid offer that had our realtor giddy. It was like we'd been kicked in the gut. We had listed for $10k more than his market analysis, and here we were with a reasonable offer. What was happening? What were we supposed to do?
September 8th: We started having at least one showing a day at this point. But we had a decision to make. I had agreed while in Sun River to look at other homes in our search area after we got back, and the day after the offer we had a bunch to go to. There were 7 homes that fit our criteria. We looked at all of them, and a couple extras. The first home we looked at wasn't everything I was looking for, but was appealing. Jesse loved it -- he had been interested in it for a while. I agreed to put it on the short list. The next bunch of homes we saw were absolutely not for us. Finally, we went to see my dream house again. I was still in love. But as we sat in the home and tried to figure out how we would live in that layout, we couldn't find a way for our life to fit there. I was bummed. But it was obvious that this perfect home wasn't perfect for us. But we arranged to pick our kids up from school and go over to the first home again.
The kids had told us in no uncertain terms that they would not go for any home except the one I had picked out. But when we took them into this other home, they almost immediately said they liked it better than my 'perfect' house. We had agreed that if we could not find a suitable home to buy, we would not sell our house. But this one felt right to all of us. Of course, the prospect of us giving up our home that had our heart and soul in it was a tough thing to consider. By that evening, I wasn't sure I was game for any of this anymore.
September 9th: In the morning, I prayed about it just to make sure I made the right decision. I didn't get an answer on my knees, but shortly thereafter I received an overwhelming confirmation that the Brookside home was right for us. We were supposed to do this. I don't get answers that clearly very often. But it was distinct, and it was right. I knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
September 10th: We had signed contracts on both houses -- to sell ours and to buy Brookside.
One day while sitting in a parking lot waiting for Jesse to do bottle returns, I found myself staring at one of the banks we bank at. I had a feeling we needed to go talk to them about the mortgage. I was thinking -- this probably is nothing, but I know I need to check it out just in case. They ended up being the best deal for our mortgage.
Another day, I was sitting in a doctor's office thinking about how tenuous real estate transactions often are, and hoping that ours would go through. I had an unsolicited impression of comfort that I did not need to worry about any of it. This was right, and everything would come together. I don't get those very often, either.
September 13th/14th: Inspection time... scary. But neither home had anything but very minor problems, and all were affordable and quickly fixed. Our home's buyer brought his mom through for another showing -- and I was nervous that mom wouldn't approve and our deal might fall apart. Nope. No problemo.
September 18th: I took Megan to our new ward so she could get her feet wet, and I felt as comfortable as I am in our current ward.
September 19th: A friend gave us a strong recommendation to move Megan to the elementary school close to our home. We had been planning on keeping her at her current school since it's her last year, but after his advice, I went to check it out. So many tender mercies happened while I was there that I knew she needed that school.
September 26th: She was happier after one day there than she had been all her other years at her current school.
And the blessings continue to rain down on us. I never thought I could leave this home, let alone with such a knowledge that it was right. The new home meets so many unfulfilled needs and wishes for us. I never dreamed there was a home that much better for us out there within our price range.
While we had been doing some of the last renovations on our home, I had a feeling that we were not doing it for ourselves. I just filed that feeling away, because the last time I felt a feeling like that it came to pass. But there was no logical reason this one should. Of course not. God's ways aren't about logic -- they are about wisdom and infinite love and what He knows we need in life. I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for leading our family down this path, although we have a lot of questions for why all this has happened. But none of us have ever questioned whether this was right. Because it is. And so we go forward with faith.
