Weekend Update Mega-Post

Wow, what a weekend! We left for Buffalo on Thursday afternoon, planning to stay until Sunday morning. However, once we saw the weather which was iminent from the midwest through the northeast, we figured we should hit the road early. That made for a whirlwind house hunt!!!

When we arrived at the hotel on Thursday night.... a special surprise was waiting for me.... a dozen, beautiful, red roses from my hubby.... waiting to thank me for joining him in this fun and wild journey! What a fun surprise! Thanks, Scott!Thought we should grab a picture of "The Chapel" so that we could show our Indiana friends where we are headed. Wow, to say that the house hunting process was an adventure would be an understatement! First, we were SO thankful to be blessed with an amazing realtor! She and her family attend The Chapel, and she was a terrific fit for us! Yep, a total blessing.... We looked at LOTS of houses over the 1 1/2 days that we were hunting..... and we saw A LOT of brown paneling, VERY colorful carpet (lemon yellow, pepto pink, chocolate brown.... to name a few!), and some of the craziest wallpaper that we've ever laid eyes on! AND THEN.... we decided to take a little drive.... and found THIS! Y'all.... it's COMPLETELY GOD that this home landed in our laps. Basically, the builder had built this home for another family, but their financing fell through. They typically don't do "spec homes" but ended up "stuck" with this brand new home and were anxious to get it off their hands. Hence, we were able to get a GREAT deal.... and they were so anxious for us to buy it that they started throwing in other goodies with it.... AC unit, appliances, kitchen island, and a garage door opener! After they started throwing in "stuff", our realtor hung up the phone in tears, shocked about what had just happened as an incentive to get us in this house. I'm telling you, friends, God FAR SURPASSED our desires and expectations. If we had driven to the model home and ordered a house, it would have looked much like this one.... with very few changes (they are taking the fancy-shmancy thing off the house above the door.... it's just "not us"). And.... it is all ready for us to just back a truck up to it and move in. Whew.... a true blessing.

This housing journey has been unreal.... surreal.... surprising for us. I was battling fear of the "what if's".... what if our house doesn't sell.... what if we don't find a place to move.... what if the timing gets all screwed up? The fact that our house in Indiana had an offer within 3 days.... the fact that we found an AMAZING home our first weekend in Buffalo.... AMAZING! All God! God is continually teaching me that He DOES care about even the little things in our lives. On Saturday morning in the hotel, I was crying because I was battling my fear.... Scott gave me a gift that morning, simply by saying, "We have nothing to fear.... God has ordered our steps." What a perfect reminder! What a perfect God! Even if all of our planning and EVERYTHING fell through with the housing deals on both ends at this point, I still believe that He IS an amazing and perfect God!One of my favorite parts of the new house: a walk-in closet in the master bedroom! YIPPE!So, Saturday afternoon, we signed all of the paperwork and then hit the road to head home. WOW! It was a LONG TRIP! We had a lot of roads that looked like this picture (actually, this was at one of the better moments!) and saw between 12-15 cars in the ditch on our way.
BUT.... we did make it home on Sunday to enjoy the REAL blessings of life..... and had a blast playing in the snow with Aaron and Isaac until dark! Such joy!
Jumping to daddy.... NO FEAR!

A little hesitation....He did it!
Just hanging out in the snow fort that Aaron built with Grandpa Burch and the neighbor kiddos!

SO happy to be home!