A nearly two year journey has come to an end.  We are homeowners again!

Actually, I think we are both still in shock not believing it actually all worked out!  We were so used to being outbid, or our offers getting rejected by the bank, or dealing with shady Realtors on the other end that I kind of think we both thought in the back of our heads we would be renters for what seemed like forever.

We decided we needed to start from scratch and change directions. So, our realtor who sold our house in Texas, Danyelle Daniel, referred us to another Keller Williams, Darlene Coady, to help us up here.  Danyelle sold our house the FIRST day it went on the market in Texas, so we were hoping she could find us someone on this end that could do the same in helping us buy one. :)

After putting an offer on a house, only to be be stuck in a multiple offer situation yet again and to be outbid, we started to get discouraged.  Then the same thing happened with another house.  Again.  But, then something really awesome happened.

About a week before Simon was born, I got a call from Darlene.  She said the agent from the house we were outbid on in October called her and told her their contract fell through and asked if we wanted to resubmit our offer.  How cool was that?  The agent called HER and asked for our offer before putting it back on the market.  Just the fact that we were dealing with a decent/kind agent on the other end was a whole new thing for us!  :)

We resubmitted the offer soon after.  The bank came back within a day or two and said they ACCEPTED our offer on one condition:  that we could close on the house by January 24th.  Nothing like doing things big!  Why not have a baby, travel to TX, stand in our sister/brother’s wedding, AND pack up and move within a month?  Sure!

Now here is the COOLEST part!  I think we signed all the papers maybe Saturday or Sunday?  I can’t remember.  But we had to wait for the bank to ratify the contract for it to go off the market.  Monday night we went over to show our parents the house and there was another family there looking at it.  Which meant, if they submitted a higher offer, all our paperwork would be void if the bank hadn’t ratified it yet.  I was having contractions and ready to pop, and not in the mood to lose another house!!!  I prayed God would PLEASE have the bank ratify this contract already!  That night (early Tuesday morning) I went into labor with Simon.  He was born the morning of December 15th, not even a few hours before we got the call from Darlene that the bank signed off on our contract and the house was OURS!!!!!!  What a really neat thing God did, a baby and a house all in the same day. :)  We are incredibly blessed and thankful!!

We closed on January 20th, and we have been hard at work ever since.  Michael and his dad have painted the whole house new fresh colors, and are currently installing hardwood floors in the downstairs.  SO many people have come to help Michael at the new house or help me pack and/or babysit at the current house which has been an incredible blessing. We are hoping to be completely moved in within the next couple weeks!!