HOUSE!!!!

I am so excited to announce that my family has placed an offer for purchase of our next home, negotiated overnight and this morning - and was accepted!!!  Oh my gosh, friends.  You have no idea how completely agonizing the last 14 months have been.

On August 6, last year we left Nebraska for California, leaving behind our fully furnished, decorated home because it showed better furnished.  We packed up 1 suitcase each, plus a couple of boxes of toys for the kids and that is what we lived on for 9 LONG months.  I know life isn't about all our STUFF.   But we never guessed our sacrifices of the comforts of home, the basic necessities and the familiarity of our own beds and pillows, and the simple joy of children's toys would seem so endless.  We thought surely our house would sell the very minute we left town and that we'd be able to settle into a home outside of Sacramento quickly and easily.  Not so much.

We moved in with 3 host families over the course of 9 LONG months.  I am so grateful for the Souzas for opening up their brand new home to my family of 4; then the Martinezes with the 3 boys of their own, for sharing their bedrooms and toys, not to mention the holidays; and lastly the Raus for allowing us to stay in their trailer and to be reunited with our dogs and feel like a complete family on your beautiful, peaceful ranch (especially when we needed that peace the most).  You 3 families gave us the gift of our family, because without your help we would have been separated by 2 time zones and mountain ranges for endless months while we waited for that darn Nebraska house to sell.

And again, my sincerest thanks to the Lew's for housing and taking such good care of our dogs for 7 months.  We never intended it to be that long but we're so grateful for your graciousness and sweet spirit so that we didn't have to give up our beloved American Eskimos.  Even our guinea pig Russell had a foster home too, with the amazing Le family.  I'm still a little sad that piggies Russell and Sally couldn't get married and have a family of their own.  Ha!

After a year on the market, our house in Nebraska finally sold this past spring but our time in California was cut much too short.  I'm still struggling with why God sent us there only to have our feet cut out from beneath us just weeks before I was to pick up my daughter in China and literally 2 days before we were going to put an offer on a home in California.  We had no place to bring our daughter home!  I can't tell you how completely lost and hurt I was.

Those feelings lasted all summer long as we moved into my mother-in-law's condo in Texas - the only place big enough to house us all that would give my daughter the room she required as part of our adoption agreements.  Texas?  Really, God?  Is this really where you want us?  Apparently so.  We had friends put all our stuff into storage in Nebraska while I went from:

Northern California...

to Texas... 

to China... 

and back to Texas... 

in 3 short weeks.  

Despite dozens and dozens of resumes sent to churches and non-profits across the country, no jobs popped up for my husband all summer.  The only things that came up were here.  And the job we took is here, for now.  So...

San Antonio, Texas will be our home!  We close in October, likely in about 20 days (still waiting on the title company to determine exactly when).  We'll pack up our few belongings here at the condo, drive down to sign all the closing papers, run to Home Depot for a carpet cleaning machine and then spend the rest of the day cleaning in preparation for our STUFF from Nebraska to be delivered to a very, very anxious wife and momma, 2 excited boys who are so thrilled to have their toys and bunk bed back and a little girl who has no idea that she has a full-sized crib, books, toddler toys, even a Jeep for her to drive, all on it's way.

Please see our prayer request page.  But for now...

Thanks, God for our new home!  I pray Your hand of blessing on the house and our family there in the years to come.  Amen.

Our soon-to-be new home!

View of the Living/Dining Room from the front door.  We LOVE the hard wood floors!  Planning to spray all the fixtures a silver color to get rid of the brass finishes - a temporary, cheap fix for now.

View of the formal Living Room from the Kitchen (we'll likely use this LR area as our home school area).  The door on the far left wall is an under-the-stairs storage closet.  Crown molding would look great in this house... eventually!

Kitchen.  My mom says this reminds her of my kitchen in Nebraska.  Same layout.  That open door you see on the right is a walk-in pantry (I'm not excited about that - YES I AM!!!)  The door that you can barely see on the left leads to the back yard.  I can hardly wait to paint the cabinets white and put some cool hardware on them.  Also, a glass tile backsplash would be amazing and fun to do!

Family Room right off the Kitchen.  Call me crazy, but I'm thrilled to have a fireplace, even in Texas!  I can HARDLY WAIT to hang the stockings on the mantle this Christmas!

Master Bedroom is HUGE!  I seriously will be looking at garage sales for furniture to fill this room.  Love the tray ceiling, just like my bedroom in Nebraska.  The whole house is painted very neutral beige and livable for quite a while.  Carpet upstairs is also very nice and clean!

Master Bath has double sinks, garden tub and separate shower.  Again, would love to paint the cabinets white!

Master tub and shower.  The door on the left is the walk-in closet, which is decent sized, but not enormous like in some homes we had seen.

The upstairs has a Loft that will serve as the kids play area.  That's right... THREE living spaces in one home.   This is awesome since we are giving up a basement that we had in Nebraska where the kids had all their toys.

Upstairs Bath only has 1 sink for all the kids.  That's a bummer.  Double sinks are hard to find down here, at least in our price range.  Oh well.  

The laundry room us upstairs and is quite large.  Not sure I'll like having laundry upstairs (I like a mudroom on the main level for the dogs) but we'll see.  Jay says I'll love it.  We still won't allow our dogs upstairs.  I need a fur-free zone!

Not pictured are the bedrooms.  They just don't photograph well.  But in addition to the Master upstairs, there are 2 additional bedrooms upstairs with decent sized closets.  The boys will still share the largest bedroom and L will have her own room.  On the main level of the house is bedroom #4 which will be a guest room/office.  That bedroom also comes with a full bath on the main level of the home.  It feels nice to have the guest room/office set apart from the rest of the house!

I don't have pictures of the back yard either, but its a clean slate.  Heck, there isn't even a patio out there.  That will be the first thing we add.  But the home backs to a greenbelt, so no one will ever build behind us.  It's a fully fenced yard for the dogs.  I'd love to see a patio and shed, trees and flowers out there sooner than later.  We'll see if we can swing that.