Time to Get Packing!

It's almost surreal. We've only had 3 couples look at our house...the second one made an offer. We just barely had time to get a lock box on the door & not even enough time to get a sign placed out front. It hardly seems real...almost like a dream. But, it's real - it's very real!

The couple seems nice enough - we passed them as we went out to breakfast so they could check out our house in peace. They came early so they could see our house before they went to church (which makes our neighbors happy). They made an offer for the full asking price...which was the high end of what it appraised for. Now, we just need to wait and see if the bank will accept the short sale.

In the mean time, we're doing some serious sorting and packing. I have a feeling we might be on Goodwill's Christmas Card list after we're done - so much just has to go! A lot of what's finding it's way out are the teaching things I just couldn't bear to part with when I cleaned out my classroom. But, chances are we won't find a home with as much storage space as we have here, so it's time to let it go. This has pretty much become David's task because I just become too sentimental and still can't let it go (especially when I think of the money I put into those things & only got to use some of them for a year or less). Oh well...if God leads me back to teaching, I get to go shopping! ;)

The other thing we have to get serious about is finding a new home to live! We've only looked at a few places and only one of them is a real possibility. Thanks to a Google search, Craigslist, Needs News (from our church), and my friends on Facebook...we now have a stack of rental homes to check out in the next few weeks. I'll be calling on those places tomorrow to set up a time when we can come look at them in the next few weeks and see what we find.

When we first told Christopher we were moving, he said in his sweet little fearful voice (tears brimming at his eyes), "But...I love my house...and what about my toys?" Once we both assured him (at different times) that his toys would indeed be coming along with us, he was all about the move! Now, he keeps asking, "Today? Are we moving today?" What has added to his excitement is the fact that a few of the places we've looked at had stairs...which, apparently, is a very exciting novelty to a 5-year-old who has lived his whole life in a single floor home!

I'm hovering between excitement of a new home, nostalgia of the memories we've made in this home, and feeling completely overwhelmed by all that needs to get done! This is the home where David and I began our married life....the only home Christopher has known. The wall in the nursery has a mural of a train & bears that I painted while we were waiting to be matched with Christopher's birth parents. The wall in the kitchen has growth markes where we've chronicled Christopher's growth each year. The mailbox out front has a train & bears resembling the nursery wall that I painted when David & I bought the house. Yes, this house has held a lot of precious memories. The good thing is that while we can't take the nursery wall, the mailbox, or the wall with Christopher's growth marks with us, we can certainly take our memories. Cameras were made for capturing memories. We do have pictures of the nursery wall and I think I've got pictures of the mailbox when it was new somewhere around here. We've got the measurements for Christopher's first 5 years - so we can recreate that on something we can take with us until we find a new home we'll call our own. And we'll always remember the day we brought that precious bundle from God home...that memory is forever etched on my heart!

Please pray for us as we pack and move. Pray that we find a home that will meet all our family's needs in a price range that fits our budget. Pray that we have wisdom to know what to take and what to let go. Pray for strength as we pack boxes and prepare for the move. Just pray! :O)