Moving On

Something huge and crazy is happening to our family.

We are MOVING!

It all came about really fast and unexpected.  We have been saying since we bought the house in April 2005 that we wouldn't be here forever.  But after 10 years and becoming close with a few of our neighbors, I wasn't sure we would ever pull the trigger and move on.

A few little things came up over the past two months that put the moving bug in my mind.  During our bible study, the author commented about how we discern God's plan for things like moving when it isn't written in the Bible.  What do we do about things in that gray area?  It caught my attention, was God telling me we needed to move?  How would I know?

As I quietly listened, God presented more information to help me see His plan for our family.  I went to a wine night with a bunch of neighborhood moms.  I left feeling blah with the conversation that happened that night.  I didn't feel like these are the moms I am meant to be standing at the bus stop with.  Jason could tell that something wasn't right that night.

Then a beautiful single family house less than a mile from our townhouse popped up on one of the Catonsville parent groups I am in on Facebook.  It was perfect, but way more money than we could afford.  I drove past it a few times over the next few days longingly wanting a big yard for our kids.  It appeared another family was checking it out too.  It went under contract quickly.

So I started looking on real estate sites... and you know how addicting that is!

I found a foreclosure in Howard County, about a mile from church.  The house was an adorable cape cod with a detached garage and .6 acres of land.  It was somewhat affordable for us AND the kids would go to top notch Ho Co schools.  I became kind of obsessed with the possibility of making this foreclosure into our cozy home.  It needed work, things like central air and finished basement, but it had a flat, huge yard, which is hard to find in our price range...

So we got an agent (who is also our neighbor) and looked at it.  It felt completely crazy to even consider a foreclosure since we are not "handy people".  We went back a week later to seriously think about it, as well as look at some other houses.

We completely fell in love with a 1924 Catonsville house that came on the market the day before.  It instantly felt like home to me.  Upon snooping at some of the pictures, I discovered I knew the mom that owned the house!  I quickly put in a message to her on Facebook telling her we wanted her house.

Again, completely crazy to even consider putting in a contract since I was leaving in a few hours for a women's retreat and Jason was taking the kids to PA for the weekend.   God had it all figured out though.  My roommate for the weekend was a lady at church I wanted to get to know better.  Sharon is in my small group and we seemed to have a lot in common.  She lives two streets over from where this 1924 house is located.  She gave me so much insight on the neighborhood, buying an older home, and the pros of a smaller home.   It all felt right to put in a contract and have Sharon be our neighbor!

So to keep it short- we put in a contract, they accepted as we drove to Lancaster for Thanksgiving.  The inspection was nearly flawless.  It is all moving smoothly.  I am so, so excited to stay in Catonsville with the community of moms I have created through MOPS and other groups.  I cannot wait to have a fenced in backyard for Parker and the kids.  I am trading my cookie cutter townhouse for a house with so much character.  Thank you God for this house!  Settlement is scheduled for January 29th (my birthday!!).

Our new house!!

On a side note- that original house that started my house searching that went under contract quickly, the family that is selling us their house bought it.  Kind of ironic how that worked out.  Clearly we have similiar taste :)

Oh yea, we need to sell our townhouse...

For the past 3 weeks we have painted trim, doors, rooms, Jason powerwashed the 3 decks, we packed up the excess crap, we took countless trips to the storage unit.  We are not contingent on the sale of our townhouse, but two mortgages for more than 1 month is not ideal!   So we are on the market as of today, Friday, December 18th.

All my excitement over the new house quickly turned to tears as I watched them put up the sign.  This was our first house, our only house as a family.  We are leaving everything that has felt safe over the last 10 years.  I have the best neighbor friend and Evie adores Emily.   Evie and Emily were going to be bus riding buddies...  It's hard to leave.  We aren't moving out of state though.  We are only 5 minutes away from our townhouse.

And so we pray.  We pray for a buyer to come quickly.  We pray for our kids to have friends in our neighborhood.  We pray for sweet neighbors like Lisa.  God has this all worked out.