But what fun is faith if you can't ever exercise it right!? :)
We have known all along that we would outgrow our house with the children we're going to soon be adopting, but always imagined having at least our first group of kids at our current home. We made plans to remodel things, change the office into their bedroom, etc. Sure, it's a smaller home, but why would we ever consider house hunting on top of going through an adoption? Moving would require additional expense, an addendum to our home study (more money), packing and moving in the dead of winter, finding a renter or buyer for our current home, etc.... That's way more on our plates than we'd ever willingly pile onto ourselves!
Well, about 2 months ago, Sam drove by a house that was for sale. He hadn't ever seen the sign before, so he thought it was newly put on the market. He did some research on it, then drove me by it the following Sunday on our way to church. He asked what I thought of it, and my mouth dropped open because we were absolutely not looking for houses. I was confused, and asked what did it matter what I thought of it if we weren't trying to move? He shrugged and said he wasn't sure, but that he really liked it. The next day I asked him how serious he was about the house, and he said he wasn't really..."It's a lot of money, and we aren't looking to move." Well, at this point, he'd already planted the idea in my head. Bad move Sam if you "aren't really serious about it". :) I'm easily excitable, think incessantly about the possibilities, and am impulsive. Not a great combination when your husband expresses excitement about something, then says, nahhhhh.
The more we talked about it, the more the idea of moving to a bigger home BEFORE the kids come home really made sense. The biggest reason was the kids' adjustments. They already have to get used to everything new - and I mean EVERYTHING. New food, new smells, new sights, new parents, new family, new language, having belongings of their own for the first time - clothes, toys, everything... And it hurt our hearts to think of them finally getting used to their surroundings and feeling safe...only to then move and force them to have to get used to yet another house, surroundings, and lose the sense of security they'd built up in our current home. These kids have been through enough. If we know it won't be long before we outgrow this house with 2-3 kids, then maybe we should consider making this change before they come home and spare them the extra fear. Can you imagine having to experience a foreign world with foreign people, only to then have to get to know yet another foreign place? If moving was on our hearts, maybe we needed to see where God took us with it...
So, we decided we should go see it and we would know pretty quickly if we liked it enough to see if we could make it work or not. We called the realtor Sam used when he bought our current home (we love her!), and we went to see it. We left the tour somewhat unsure, as it was a lot of money when we weren't planning on buying a house, and the quality of the house was very well-kept (they took really great care of it, that was obvious), but not super modern. If we're going to spend the money on a house, shouldn't it be super modern? (I'll come back to that later). So we decided we would go look at a few other houses in the area with comparable characteristics and see how this house compared in price and quality to others on the market with the criteria of what we wanted:
- At least 4 bedrooms - we're only doing this once and since we've already made comments like "the next time we adopt..." we know our family is going to continue to grow. (woohoo!)
- Close to Clear Lake - most of Sam's family lives in Clear Lake, and we spend a great deal of time in town. Our small town is beautiful, but when Sam works in Clear Lake, and I work in Mason City, we're in Clear Lake a lot.
- Not any further for us to drive to work.
- Some potential for growth - both outside and in - What if we want more than 4 bedrooms? We also wanted a place for our kids to play outside and our dogs to run.
- Preferably rural - Sam has always said he doesn't want to live in town, he wanted to live out in the country. I grew up in the country and loved it, so I was definitely in agreement.
We toured 4 homes, and each one had some really great qualities to them. The first we looked at was in Clear Lake. It was nice and spacious inside, had 4 bedrooms, huge garage....buuuut, the garage was tandem (single file so cars can only go in one behind the other), and it had a really small backyard. It was pretty congested in that neighborhood, and we wanted more space for our kids and dogs.
The second and third houses we looked at were in the same development about a half a mile outside of Clear Lake. The development was small, and was in a rural setting, but houses were still side by side. The first house was beautiful inside, had a great finished basement, 4 bedrooms...but had a pretty small backyard that opened up to a gravel road, and the neighbors were pretty close (we're starting to sound like hermits, haha). The third house we liked even better, it was really great inside - the floor plan was unique, had a finished basement that could be made into a 5th bedroom, the dining room and kitchen were built up so they overlooked the family room, and the backyard was huge, leading down to a creek. It was definitely a likely possibility.
The fourth house we saw was about 8 miles outside of Clear Lake. It sat on 4 acres, had a big barn, and a few outbuildings, then the rest of the land was wooded. It's on a gravel road, and had gorgeous landscaping (I'm talking a tri-level waterfall system with a pond, and a bridge to walk across the pond). This took some serious time! (Which would also mean it'd take some serious time to maintain, and my green thumb hasn't grown in yet...) This property also had a guest house! It was beautiful, heated and air conditioned, a loft, a perfect play house for the kids. Buuuuut, it was a quarter of a mile off the interstate, and the semis were so loud going by that we could hardly hear ourselves on the phone outside. So much for beautiful landscaping if you need headphones to enjoy it... So, between the distance from Clear Lake and the interstate, we sadly told that house goodbye (I also liked this one).
We decided to go tour the initial house again. We kept coming back to this one, and even though we started out somewhat unsure after our first tour, it grew more and more appealing. It met every single one of our criteria above, and was over $40,000 cheaper than the 3rd house we saw and liked.
Let me tell you about it :)
This home was built in 1920. It has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a basement that would pretty easily make into 1 or 2 more bedrooms if we needed them. And it already has a basketball hoop! (haha okay, that's not really important). :) It was owned by a couple and their family for the past 34 years, and they took excellent care of their house and property.
It has a beautiful barn, and 4 outbuildings. The property is 4 acres, full of pasture areas to allow for a potential future Burleson Petting Zoo (hehe). The barn is in good condition, as are the outbuildings. And there's already a horse hitching post! (okay, also not really important...but so cute!)
(See them in the picture above on the left beside the white building? They even have horse heads on them!)
This is the entire property. The road you see in front of the house is blacktop (which means no gravel dust, phew!). There's a little monkey bar, swingset combo already on the property as well (also not important, but a nice perk). Annnnd, it's a mile outside of Clear Lake. It takes Sam 5 minutes to get to work. It's a little shorter for me to drive to work as well, not by much, but a little.
We prayed hard for God to show us if this is what He wants us to do. Did He really want us to be trying to work in a down payment for a house on top of paying for an adoption? When we compared this home to the reeeally nice home #3 I mentioned above, we concluded that we didn't need really modern. Home #3 was breathtaking when you walked in (it didn't help when they had supper cooking in a crockpot on the stove and the whole house smelled like YUM!). It had a beautiful backyard, and all new updates inside. But, that's all we'd be getting - a house and a backyard, and fancy appliances. Those are really, really appealing and the good ole American way of thinking really kicked in there for a bit. Super nice house really stood out in my mind, but as we talked about it, we realized we didn't want to just buy a house with really nice things. Because nice things aren't what's really important, or going to matter in 5 years when it's all outdated again anyway.
Most of all, we are really trying to turn a new leaf, and focus on making sure that every purchase we make brings glory to God in some way. Would a really nice house with just enough space for our family and a backyard be able to better bring glory to God than the house on 4 acres? With the extra outside space at the house in the pictures above, we could host youth group activities, hold outreach events, invite people in need over for supper or a bonfire, have bible studies, etc. Some of those things we could do with the other house as well (a bonfire doesn't require 4 acres), but the magnitude and potential we would have with 4 acres means that much more potential for God to use us and our home to reach out to others. With the possibility of a 5th and 6th bedroom as well, that's even more kids we can help, whether it be through adoptions, fostering, sleepovers, or giving someone in need a warm place to stay.
We looked hard at our finances, because we absolutely weren't going to pull anything from our adoption savings account, and it was a bit much to swallow when the next check we would be writing is $18,000 towards our adoption. Could we come up with a down payment as well? We came up with a plan, and decided with the interest rates where they are for home loans, we should go for it. If we couldn't settle on a good price, then it wasn't meant to be. We also learned that this house has been on the market for 2 years, and has had a For Sale sign out front the entire time. We go by this house EVERY Sunday for church, and we just now saw it for sale? It's also only had one offer on it in 2 years, and it is a very nice home, great location, and excellent acreage. Sooo, maybe these were little signs we should move forward on it? We put in an offer, and after some negotiation, we got it! We are now looking at a closing date of (on or before) January 4th!
There are some things that could still prevent this from going through, and since we haven't signed papers yet, nothing is a done deal. But, if those things happen, I believe those are God's way of keeping us on the right track. If this opportunity falls through, then it wasn't meant for us. We are content in our current home, and will make whatever adjustments we need to fit our family here. Our adoption fund went untouched, and we continue to add to the adoption savings account each paycheck. We promised ourselves we wouldn't let this move influence our adoption goals, and we'll continue to hold ourselves to that.
SO, those are the changes that are happening now with our preparations for our kiddos coming home. We are so excited that the home our kids will learn to feel safe in is the home they will continue to feel safe in their whole childhood. No uprooting has to happen, and their sense of security and safety with us is a top priority. And one day, they can proudly give the tour of their home to their new brother or sister, understanding their feelings of fear, but reassuring them that it will be okay because they're finally home...
