Packing Up and Moving Out

Three boxes Mommy packed, and the three boxes Bethany packed.


We found the house! It is uh-mazing. Given our price range, we'd been looking at foreclosures for weeks. We'd seen houses with cracks in the walls and foundations, a couple with randomly inserted walls, several with no flooring whatsoever, and even one with a full-blown beehive in the garage. (I was the one who made that discovery. Pretty exciting stuff). We'd calculated costs of repairs, considered sweat equity, and tried to discern cosmetic issues from structural. Then two weeks ago our realtors sent us this house that just popped up.

Brand new model home. $80,000 in upgrades. Never been lived in. Beautiful little cluster community centered around a park. Two miles away. Just knocked $100,000 off the price.

We went and saw it first thing the next day and put in an offer and got it. We're still pinching ourselves on this one, and so is Bethany who got her stairs and her community pool. God's provision through it all has been incredible. Each step He has given us more than what we were even hoping for. We're praying that God would fill this house with grace and love and ministry and kids and that it would be used as a great tool for the gospel. So we're packing and cleaning and moving next weekend! Praise God! Oh, and seeing as we're moving it's a great time to do another garage sale, so if anyone has any more stuff to unload let me know!

Priority number one in the new house: Get the TV working by Sunday at 4:oo pm.

Yard Sale Stats

Yard Sale Start Time: 7:00am
First Lull ("Lull" being defined as less than 10 people in the driveway): 10:30am
Weirdest thing donated: 50 Sombreros
Biggest Ticket Item Sold: Couch and Loveseat Set $120
Surprise Hit: "Hot Wheels" Cars
Most Disturbing Moment: Racially-charged shouting match between two customers
Most Disturbing Customer: The older man who looked like he'd just been attacked by a pack of angry cats and acted as if everything was normal
Sale End Time: 12:00pm
Grand Total Raised: $1,550.00

Two Words: Woo. Hoo.

We will definitely be doing this again. THANK YOU to all the helpers and to everyone who donated items and watched our kids and most of all to my amazing Mom who pretty much did all the hard work. You guys rock.

Yard Sale, New Houses, and Waiting for the King

Only 6 days into the New Year, and there is so much going on at our house! Saturday is the big garage sale, and I mean BIG. We have recieved so many donations from so many different people and we have SO MUCH stuff! It's wonderful! We're having the sale at my parents' house in Ahwatukee because they have a huge driveway that will hold it all. So this week I am running around picking stuff up and making drop offs at my mom's and writing out a bunch of signs. Nothing like a Sharpie buzz to keep you going strong.

On top of that, a few weeks ago Matthew woke up with the crazy idea of taking advantage of the current housing market by buying a new house and renting out this one. We talked and thought and prayed about it and we're moving forward! Thankfully we've had quite a bit of interest in renting our house, and our fantastic realtors Matt and Danielle Long have shown us lots of great houses, so now we're just waiting for the right one. The kids love going out looking, especially since pretty much everything we're looking at is bank-owned and vacant. They get into these big empty greatrooms and just spin around until they fall on the floor laughing. It's hilarious.

We go to the mailbox every day to see "if the King in America says we can adopt our kids", as Bethany explains it. What we're actually waiting for is a letter from the Maricopa County court Judge to give us approval and certification to adopt. Once we have that, we can seek approval from the Ugandan governemnt. But the King in America is taking his sweet time, so it seems. And so we wait, knowing everything will happen in God's time.

If you want to come by and see us at the sale, the address is 3543 E Modoc Ct, Phoenix, 85044. I'll post a total raised after this weekend!