Well, to the home we have for the next however many days.
Jeremy and I went house-hunting this weekend. Silly me didn’t think to pack a jacket. Most of the places I’ve lived, it is usually warm enough by this time to not need one except in early morning or late evening. I’ve only lived up in northern US for 6 months the year I turned 16 and I didn’t really think of the difference in the weather. He had to work on Friday and we left the children with his parents after he got off of work and headed up north. I talked to the Realtor up there while we were driving to get some of our mental bearings oiled and working together. We got to Lansing, IL kind of late on Friday. It was the closest hotel to Hammond, IN and I was so cold that I turned on the heater in our hotel room.
On Saturday, we were up bright and early for an over the phone meeting and to get a fax with all the houses she’d pulled up with the criteria we asked for. After breakfast, we went around to different houses and looked at the outsides of them, taking notes to see which ones we actually wanted to see inside of. I called her back at different intervals during that time so she could call and make appointments for us to see the houses. It was chilly out, but I was able to endure it because we were in the van the whole time. We were done by lunch time, so we took a break and waited for her to call us back about any appointments later that day. We had time to go to one of the libraries and browse their selection. They still didn’t have the Terry Brooks one that I am wanting to read. Anyway, after a while, she called us back and said that she couldn’t get any appointments for that afternoon, but was able to get all but one of the houses for Sunday after church. That one house was a back-up, only if we couldn’t find another house we liked. It didn’t fit all our requirements exactly, so it probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. We went back to the hotel and took a nap. Ah! That hardly ever happens for us. We checked out a Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was yummy! It might be a good date restaurant for later… if we can find anyone who is willing to babysit 5 children and not make us pay a ton to do it.
On Sunday, we visited a possible church for us. We like small churches. This one was really small. It was very, very friendly. I think almost everyone in the congregation came up to greet us and they prayed for us and our housing situation. I thought it was very sweet. After church, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed for the first house, than #2, #3, #4, and #5. We didn’t get to see inside #4. The lock box wasn’t working. We looked in the windows and saw that most of the rooms were just too small and there wasn’t nearly enough cabinet room in the kitchen for all our big family groceries, so it was struck off the list. The ones we liked best were #1 and #3. We started driving back just before 3:00 pm. A cold front had come in and I was very cold. I don’t like much under 70* and it was only about 50* there. As we were driving home, we discussed the pros and cons of both and decided that #1 is probably the best choice for our family. We got back just in time for evening church at our own church. I loved getting out of the van down here. Wonderful, wonderful warmer air. It was great.
We’ll be talking to the Realtor tomorrow about our decision. Keep praying. Pray for wisdom in this choice, pray that the house here sells easily, and pray for all the packing and cleaning we’ll be doing in the next few days.
Wow! What a whirlwind of activity. Praying about your purchase with you.