Going from Bummed to Excited with one simple "CLICK"

So Friday we arrived back home after spending the day looking at an array of houses, all were either out of our price range, or they were run down and in terrible neighborhoods.

On the Wednesday before , as Rodney and I were looking through ads and bookmarking our favorites, I ran across quite a few that were beautiful and seemed perfect, BUT...they were at least $200-$300 over our price range. DARN!!

I ran across an ad that pulled me in and kept causing me to go back to it and look at it again. I would send the link to Rodney and he would tell me, "Quite torturing yourself, by looking at ones over our price range". 

I KNOW I KNOW!

Something about this ad, kept pulling me in though...what was it?

Was it the title?

 "Charming Country Cottage"?

 "Fully Fenced In, and Gated Driveway"?

 "Mountain Views"?

 "Hardwood Floors"?

 "Dogs Welcomed"?

 "Dead End Road"?

 "Adjacent Farm"?

So that night I decided to take a risk, it wouldn't cost me anything. I emailed him!

My email consisted of introducing ourselves, our story. We are Michiganders here for my husband to study at Piedmont International University. We have 2 kids, and currently live in a one bedroom tiny dorm on campus. I told him our desire to have a yard for our kids to play in, to live in a safe neighborhood. I told him that we would still like to live close to the college and close to our church. BUT...I also told him that we could only afford $200 less than his asking price. I hit send and prayed for the best.

 "After all I wasn't expecting an answer."

On that Friday when we went looking around at houses, I had kind of forgotten about the email I had sent out. After all I wasn't expecting an answer. The email was more of a therapeutic thing for me to say that, "I tried".

Friday night, Rodney and I were bummed after a long day of looking at terrible houses.  Around 6pm we were sitting in our tiny living room/master bedroom, and the kids were playing in their room. We were both kind of quiet. I was sitting on the couch, and I yelped, "Rooodney?!". My mouth was open and my hand was over it and my eyes were glazed over.

I received a reply from my email! Here is what it said:

"I’ve been thinking about your email. Let me pray about it a bit longer and I’ll be back in touch."

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!!

He was actually thinking about it!? My email has caused him to pause!?

By this time I was freaking out! I told Rodney, "He better not be a Baptist that takes forever to pray about something before they make a decision!" haha

At this point, I started checking my email every 3 minutes. 

I received another reply around 11pm, here is what it said:

“If you’re still interested in renting the house, call me. I’d like for you guys to come out and take a look at it and we can see if we can work something out. Coincidentally, I graduated from Piedmont and Rob Decker is a good friend of mine.”

My first thought was, 

“Is it too late to call tonight!?”

More to Come :)

Moving Again...? Of coarse!

Let me start by telling you our living circumstances since moving to North Carolina:

So Rodney and I moved to NC and when we arrived, we moved into a studio dorm, so no bedrooms at all! The kids slept in the kitchen/dining room and we slept in the living room. We lived like that for 5 months.

A week before Christmas we were notified that a "larger" dorm opened up. We moved into the larger dorm which was a one bedroom dorm. The kids got the bedroom along with all our dressers, and chest freezer and we still get to sleep in the living room. We have been in this dorm a little over a year now.

“Not that I was ever in need, for I have 

learned how to be content with 

whatever I have. I know how to live on 

almost nothing or with everything. I 

have learned the secret of living in 

every situation, whether it is with a full 

stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 

For I can do everything through Christ, 

who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:11-13

It was such a blessing moving into this place. Many people that were ahead of us on the waiting list to get a larger dorm turned it down, because they wanted us to be able to have it. We are the only married couple with kids on campus. This spoke incredible volumes of love and sacrifice on their parts. I am eternally grateful.

We have noticed lately, probably because River and Laike are both getting older but they are getting terrible cabin fever. We live on the fourth floor and it's an open campus near downtown, so the school doesn't really have a yard or a playground. We would have to make it an "event" just to go outside to let them play on occasion. It was getting to the point where River would come home from school and be so bored and bugging us that he would just lay in bed under his covers watching a movie.

We started to look at our finances for the year, just like we do every January, and as we were talking and calculating we started considering the thought of moving. On Tuesday the 3rd we decided to look around in the neighborhood close to the school for houses to rent. We had a set amount we could afford. We thought we would give it a try and if we find something that would cost near what we are paying now, we may consider moving. We soaked it all in prayer.

EXPECTATIONS

(ok..maybe not quite...but you get the idea)

Our very first house we looked and walked through was on the same day. It was a beautiful, nice city house. It was 2 blocks from the college and 2 blocks from the kids school. It had a screened in front porch, fireplace, hardwood floors, french doors, large kitchen, full basement and a completely fenced in yard. It was PERFECT! Or so I thought. This was bad, my very first house and guess what I did....I got married to it. Big no no! We talked to the owners and tried to work something out. They came down in price but it was still out of our price range. We thought to ourselves, "This is going to be a long process". 

I knew the house was a no, but since I married it and got my emotions involved, everyday for the rest of the week I went out of my way by a block to drive past it when I dropped the kids off to school and then again when I picked them up. So much, that River asked me "Mom, why do you keep driving past this house and staring at it?" haha I answered with "Don't worry about it"

We chose not to involve the kids in the process in case it turned out with us having to stay at the dorm. We didn't want to get their hopes up.

On Friday the 6th we had a big enough list gathered of houses to look at that we went on an all day road trip going from address to address looking at houses that were within our rent range. It was a long day of peeking in houses, cringing and locking our doors as we went slowly through bad neighborhoods, running from stray mangy dogs, and wasting a lot of gas! Needless to say we arrived back home tired and discouraged. We thought we would never be able to leave this dorm, everything in our price range was either in bad/dangerous neighborhoods, or broke down falling apart houses.

REALITY!

(ok...maybe not quite..but you get the idea)

Rodney and I haven't gone through a house hunting experience since choosing our first home to rent almost 10 years ago. Every place since then was kind of given to us or assigned to us. 

It was determined, we were gonna have to stay here in our tiny dorm for the next 2 years............

More to Come :)