Okay, the details

In 15 years of marriage, we've owned a house one time. For that matter, we've never had a choice about where to live in 15 years of marriage except once.

When we first got married, there was a teeny tiny upstairs apartment that was cheap, close to school, and available right when we needed it. We didn't even look for anything else, even though you had to walk through the door-less bedroom to get to the kitchen and bathroom. The little old man who lived downstairs would routinely let himself in to check out how we were taking care of it and to defrost the 25 year old freezer every couple of weeks.

From that first upstairs college apartment, we moved into a little parsonage in Illinois. Now, the church was super-generous and allowed us to choose new carpet, paint, and I decorated that little spot right up with stenciled walls and lots of paint color. Yes, it was the 1990's.

From that little parsonage, we moved next door into the bigger parsonage when the church pastor (Brian was the youth pastor) relocated. We painted all over again. Even when we both were struck down with the flu, we painted. Maybe all this painting explains why we hate it so much these days.

When we moved back to Nashville in 2002, we moved into a tiny little duplex sight unseen. Yes, I was fairly horrified.

Six months later, we got bit by the "buy our own home" bug, and we bought a tiny little plot of land in a tiny little subdivision and proudly watched as our home was built. It was little; our yard was even tinier, but it was shiny and new, and we loved it.

Five years and one little Korean boy later, we sold our house so that we could pay for Rory's adoption and moved into yet another parsonage. It had a beautiful yard, was very convenient for church, but I longed for a home that I could call my own. And a bedroom with a little foot space around our bedroom furniture. And a closet. I gave up all pretenses of decorating. Being debt-free was very freeing.

With the exception of all the money I spent on cute clothes for my girl anyway.

5 years into rural parsonage living, we started planning to move to Texas. And I started buying and decorating a house in my head.

And then we didn't move to Texas. I really thought that my dream of owning a house was done. It was just something that I thought I wouldn't experience in my life. And, yes, some of this thinking was during my really dark days this summer. I tried to let go of it, knowing that it is not the most important thinking in life.

Not only did we not move to Texas, but we were forced to move out the parsonage; I was in the hospital with nowhere to come home to. Some sweet, generous friends and their church family arranged for a house for us to rent and we moved in. Sight unseen again. 

Fast forward a couple of months, and we find ourselves in the position of looking for a small, cheap house, but a house none-the-less. We knew that we were going to have to choose location over everything else and was expecting to buy a small, older home that needed lots of work. In fact, we had 2 realtors tell us how hard it was going to be to find a house in our price range in the location we specified.

But I think God had different plans. I think God saved a house just for us. I think God is trying to give me the desires of my heart (Ps. 37:4).

Because in the first weekend of looking, we found a house in the exact location we were looking for - 3 minutes from the interstate.

And about 8 minutes from a Starbucks if you're interested in that sort of thing.

It is bigger than I thought we'd be able to afford (1,637 sq ft). It has the bonus space for an office we really wanted. And best news of all, it has new floors (including ceramic tile that I dreamed of), new appliances, new light fixtures, and new counters. And a decent front and back yard, sitting on a cul-de-sac so the kids have a place to ride their bikes.

We think we're going to close October 15ish. Let's all take a deep breath at the realization of how soon that is! We saw the house for the first time on September 29. I seriously could not be more excited.

And this week's after-school picture. Okay, pictures.

Okay, that first picture was a lie. Here's what the reality of this shoot was.

And a cheesy picture of Rory that I snapped while we were waiting on Camden.

Enjoy your weekend! We've got paint shopping, food truck eating, 2 doctor's appointments (for me, unfortunately), a soccer game, house inspection, church, etc. Oh, and Brian is off today and Monday. Kids are off Monday and Tuesday so lots of family time.