We sold our house. Our little 3 bedroom/2 bathroom home. Our 1st home that we purchased just a year after being married. It has been such a lovely little place to grow and change. We made some of the best memories here. We've gotten to know wonderful neighbors, had dinners with friends and family members around our table, baked lots of Christmas goodies, adopted a puppy, had major growing pains and heartaches, and some of the greatest joys our hearts have ever known. We brought our babies home from the hospital to this house. We tore down wallpaper, changed out light fixtures, painted EVERY room, scraped paint from a bathroom floor, and made it ours. We've loved living in this house. But now, we're packing it up in boxes and moving on.
We bought a new house. James's office will be moving within the next year and we are attempting to cut down on his commute. Our new house is slightly bigger and in a different town. We hope to still be close enough to stay involved with our church and our community here. Embrace Grace will be starting back up in August and I'm terribly excited about what plans the Lord has for us and those he loves so dearly.
I didn't know how much buying and selling a house entailed. The selling part wasn't too bad... it happened in approximately 3 days and would have gone faster if we'd allowed it to. We just had an open house, accepted offers, and then picked one. The finding a new house was a little more tricky. It seems we are in a sellers market and not so much a buyers market. All of the properties we looked at went incredibly fast! We settled on a smaller lot in a neighborhood with a community pool, walking trails, and playgrounds. James is excited to mow less grass and I'm excited that the kitchen has SSSSOOOO many cabinets! I can't wait for the sippy cups to not fall out on my head every time I open the door. It's 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and lots of room to make new memories.
We celebrated 9 years of marriage yesterday! How in the world can that be true? Am I old enough to have been married for 9 years? Don't answer that... it was a rhetorical question. That picture of me on our bedroom wall in the white dress was taken long enough ago that sometimes I don't recognize myself. Not only are there fine lines beginning to appear around my eyes and other bodily changes I won't go into details about, but my heart condition has certainly changed as well. I'm not talking about a disorder or disease. I'm simply referring to the journey that God has carefully orchestrated for us to walk together as we begin to see him more clearly and though incredibly painful at times I am ever grateful for the perspective gained.
The last change I'll mention, if had been written about in chronological order would have come first in this list of events and I suppose technically it wasn't a July event, but actually happened sometime around the end of May...
We went to the doctor today and though I've held my breath, hoping and praying and worrying and trying not to worry, baby #3 is due to arrive mid February. We saw the sweetest little heartbeat and wiggly little arms via ultrasound today and tears of joy streamed from my eyes. The sweetest of surprises and the most wonderful of blessings comes in the form of a baby. I guess that bigger house was just in time.
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| Baby "shrimp" due to arrive Feb. 16, 2017- Heartbeat of 180 |
If you ask our oldest about any of the changes listed above he may say something like this (try to read it in your best "Andy" voice adding in some extra syllables and with slight mispronunciation) :
We still live in an old house right now, but we are getting a new house. I wanted it to be a black house, but momma said I'd have to wait until I got big to get my own black house, so my new room has a black wall in it. My new house is going to have a pool so you can come swim with me. Momma and daddy had an anniversary, whatever that means. Momma says it's sort of like a birthday, but it's when she and daddy got married. My birthday is going to be an ocean party with a shark cake. My momma has a baby in her belly and I think I've figured out that it is going to be a boy. I need a baby brother because I already have a baby sister. I've always wanted a baby brother. Momma and daddy say we won't know if the baby is a boy or a girl for a little while still and that God is the one that gets to choose. My new baby doesn't have a name yet, but we call it baby shrimp. I think that's a funny name.
