Our House!

Wow, becoming a homeowner is a stressful, unpredictable ordeal. We finally moved into our first home March 27th, the day before Laura's birthday. That's got to be the most expensive birthday gift anyone has ever gotten, we joke. Some friends of ours told us they were needing to sell their house quickly in order to move to Georgia to pastor a new church--this happened before the end of last year. Forest went to see it one Sunday afternoon, Laura and the kids stopped by the next day, and by the end of the week it had all been settled, at least verbally, that we would be purchasing their home. It is a large home, with four bedrooms, a finished basement, huge garage, and a pool in the fenced back yard (it's child-proofed with an excellent deck that the children cannot access without an adult).

We knew it would take a while to work things out, but never thought it would take nearly four months. The Lord does provide though, and we have been so grateful for all the help we've had along the way. The best part is thinking this is our home for the next ? years--not just for a year, or six months, or just until we're done with school. This is our home, where our children are going to grow up. They have been great at adjusting to the move, the new place, the new rules, all of it, but they'll not have to do it again.

For Forest it's a little more real than for Laura, especially since he did the walk-through with the landlord. When he handed over the keys, and received the deposit check back, he knew he was not a renter any more! He grew up in one house in Florida and loved it. He is excited about being able to give that to our children also.

Now Laura came from an Air Force family, so moving, while still not fun, is something she's used to. In fact, since they have been married, Forest and Laura have lived in six homes now, and three of those just in Louisville. So, for Laura, the being settled feeling hasn't come yet, maybe it will come when the boxes are either all unpacked or at least stored properly, rather than just piled out of the way waiting to be unpacked or stored. However, already for some strange reason, the housework is more enjoyable.

There is still a lot of work to do, with all the unpacking, and painting to finish. Eventually we would like to change things to fit our family a little better (Laura's really looking forward to a laundry chute from the bathroom to the laundry room). But for right now just being in a home that is twice the size of our old apartment with a fenced back yard for the children is a huge blessing to our family.