Journey in the Desert: Day 333; We're Here!

Just in case there are any mathematicians out there who realize that my 'Journey in the Desert' days don't add up; I originally started counting the days from when our townhouse first went on the market. I decided to change the starting date to when we first decided to pursue a move to Michigan. Since we didn't sell the townhouse, I thought that might be irrelevant. It was over Memorial Day weekend of 2007 that we fasted and prayed about whether or not it was time to pursue a move back 'home'. That is when our journey began.

So....

It's official!!!

My husband and I bought our first house together! (Can I hear a big 'Woo Woo!'?)

Here's a quick summary of the journey that has led to this point.

May 2007: We fast and pray about moving back to Michigan.

June 2007: We move into my mother's house so that we can put the townhouse on the market without having to worry about the showings. Plus, the house would show much better without all our children paraphanelia.

July 2007: The townhouse is listed on July 1. Let's see what happens!

August 2007: My husband hears about a job opening in a company with Christian employees. He knows the person who is hiring for this position, and as he contacts Jason, Jason is already in the process of contacting him (Jason heard through the grapevine that my hubby was looking for a job, and thought he would be a good fit.) He flies to Michigan for an interview, and is offered the job the next day. (We thought it would take much longer to find a job).

September 2007: We have our good-bye party in Colorado, load up our moving truck, and head east. We roll into Lansing on September 9. My husband started his new job on the 12th.

October 2007: Our townhouse went under contract!! A closing date of Oct. 26th was set. This meant that we were able to buy a home in MI! We placed an offer on an older house that had a pool, and needed a lot of work, but it was a great deal. Two days before closing on the townhouse, the deal fell through, and we had to pull our offer on the house in Michigan.

November 2007: Right after the deal fell through on the townhouse, our friend Amy, who was graciously letting us stay in her vacant home (it was on the market) is afraid that it will look like she's renting to us, so she asks us to move out. In two weeks. After much frantic searching, our realtor fixes us up with some other clients of hers who have a vacant home that is also on the market. They decide to lower the rent for us, if we agree to do showings for them. We move in 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. We also decide to pull our townhouse off of the market, and try renting it out. We hire a property manager to take care of the details for us.

December 2007: Our first Christmas back in Michigan!

January 2008: Our townhouse is rented!! The tenant signs an 18 month lease, and we're good to go! We place an offer on a cute house with a big 'boat' in the backyard. We are excited to hear what happens.

February 2008: We're pregnant again!! Yay! (Still haven't heard anything about the house we placed the offer on.)

March 2008: Our realtor starts pushing us to look at houses again. We are reluctant, but she is persistent. She takes us out on the Monday after Easter, and the first house we look at is amazing. She tells us there are 4 offers on it already, so we would need to act right away. We place an offer that same day. The next day, we are at the doctor's office, finding out that our precious little one has left my womb to be with Jesus, when our realtor calls to tell us our offer was accepted. We withdraw our offer on the house that we extended 2 months ago.

April 2008: After a bumpy road, we are finally approved, and cleared to close!! As of 11:30 this morning the house is ours!!

Thank you, Lord!!