Hurry Up, September 9th!

We finally found out that the closing date on the home that my parents are buying and then renting to Jordan and me is Thursday, September 9. Exactly two weeks from yesterday. Yes, I'm counting down. We are so excited. We have been so thankful for the roof we've had over our heads for the past year and two months, but we're very ready to move on now. The home we're currently renting is a very small (I'm not sure on the square footage, but trust me, it's not much) two-bedroom, one-bathroom, four wall concrete block house. It has next to NO insulation, so our power bill is astronomical in the summer, but we still burn up, and our gas bill for the heat is astronomical in the winter, but we still freeze to death. The two bedrooms have tiny closets, one of which (the closet in the second bedroom) is full of diapers and wipes and baby clothes and other baby stuff for Rylee, and the other of which (the one in the "master bedroom") is full of a bunch of Jordan's clothes, leaving no room for MY clothes. And the kitchen... ha. Don't even get me started there. It only has four cupboards to house all of our plates, bowls, glasses, pots and pans, casserole dishes, pitchers, other miscellaneous dishes, dish towels, laundry detergent (because the washer and dryer hook-ups are in the kitchen) etc., etc., etc. Just NOT enough room. There are only two very small drawers to hold all of our utensils. And we have one other cabinet to act as the "pantry" for all of our canned goods and other non-perishable food items. Also, there are no hook-ups for a dishwasher, so we've had to wash every single dish or utensil we've dirtied over the past 14 months by hand. No big deal whatsoever for some people, but I pretty much loathe washing dishes. I told my mom that I would NEVER complain about having to load and unload a dishwasher again, and I mean it. Anyway, if all that weren't enough, the house is also located in a flood zone, so we have had "lake front" property on more than one occasion. (In fact, there have been one or two times where it rained so much that we were less than an inch away from having water seep into the house!) To top it all off, the house isn't located in the best part of town. I'm not saying we hear gunshots late at night or anything like that (thankfully we've never heard gunshots here), but you won't see a house with a white picket fence in our neighborhood. One of our next-door neighbors is actually a convicted child molester. Yeah. Didn't know that until AFTER we moved in... Granted, the man's 80-something years old now, but still. I'm not one to take chances with something like that, especially now that I have Rylee. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not saying all of this to sound like I'm complaining, even though I'm sure that's how it might come off. Like I said earlier, we have been very grateful that the Lord has provided us with a roof over our heads. Some people have absolutely NOTHING, and we are so undeserving of all that God has given us. If we had to live in this house the rest of our lives, I would still thank God every day. It would be hard, especially considering we'd like to have more kids someday and this house was certainly not made for expanding a family, but we'd make it work somehow. But that's my point in all of this. God has already provided our needs, but He also knows the desires of our hearts and has decided to bless us with the opportunity to move into a larger home. Not because we deserve it, but because He's gracious enough and merciful enough to bless us with it anyway. The "new" home we're moving into has three bedrooms, all of which have walk-in closets (in fact, the closet in the master bedroom is practically big enough to be a bedroom in and of itself), and two bathrooms. It has a large living area, a separate dining room, a huge kitchen with more than enough cabinets and drawers (and hook-ups for a dishwasher!), and a laundry room. The back door leads out to a small covered deck, and there is a large shed for storage in the backyard. There's even a Weeping Willow tree in the backyard. I've always wanted a Weeping Willow in my yard. I can't wait to move in. Sure, I'll miss the house we're currently living in. In fact, it won't surprise me in the least if I cry when we move. After all, this is the first home I shared with my husband. It's the house we brought our daughter to when we came home from the hospital. These walls hold countless memories accumulated over the past 14 months of our lives together, and I wouldn't trade those for the world. But we are so excited to start this next chapter in our lives. And we're so grateful to God for the opportunity. Here's a picture of the house we're currently renting:

(I'll continue to post more blogs with updates on the new home and our preparations to move as we get closer to the "big day".)