God's Provision: Our Home Story, Part 2

Part 1

About nine months in to our home search, we found out we were expecting a new baby.  Not only were we discouraged about finding a home, now we felt desperate.  We knew that with a few months, we were going to need to either find a new home or  figure out a way to add a fourth child into the kids’ bedroom or find a place for all our ‘stuff’ so we could open up our third bedroom.  It was a daunting  but necessary task.  Once I emerged from the haze of morning sickness, we began calling Sharon again to set up home showings.  
Sharon was a wonderful family-friendly real estate agent, never minding when the kids tagged along (which was most of the time).  The kids were troopers and loved exploring the nooks and crannies of any space we wandered, but I really hated the home-looking process.   I dreaded the days where we drove around, visiting four or five homes at a time.

February 2010

In April 2010, a year into our quest, we went to see a House A.  The home was workable, but we didn’t think so at first.  We went to look on a Monday morning on our way to my ultrasound to find out whether we were having a boy or girl.  We kind of liked it, but the bedrooms were small and the dining area was part of the family room.  The house sat on about half an acre and had a open backyard.  We left the property and went on to our day’s main event.  We found out that our tiny babe was a girl—our Alaine.  All week, we discussed the house and tried to decide whether to proceed.  By Saturday, we decided that with a bit of work, we could make the home our own.  We e-mailed Sharon and told her we wanted to make an offer.  However, we found out that just the night before, the house had gone under contract with another buyer. 

The following Saturday, we were looking at yet another house when Sharon mentioned that House A was already back on the market and with a bit of digging, we found out that the septic system had failed an inspection, meaning repairs were needed that were beyond our budget.  God had given us our clear no.

For several months, we even thought that an investor was going to buy House A to do the repairs and sell it back to us, but he kept hitting road blocks-- a clear no.

September 2010

Through much of our house-hunting, we kept quiet about it.  We are private people and so we kept this aspect of our lives private.  I didn’t mention it on my blog and only a few people (my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, a close friend) knew we were looking, but no one really knew the extent of our search.  I think we were afraid to get anyone’s hopes up because the search was such a roller coaster ride for us. 

We held off as long as possible, but a little over three weeks before Alaine was due, we moved Benjamin into the “big kids’ room.”  He had been sleeping on a mattress in our room so we moved that into his “new” room since there wasn’t room for another bed.  We bought new matching bedding for all of the kids so that the room seemed special, if a bit cramped.  Three days (not weeks) later, on September 1, 2010, Alaine was born and took up residence in the master bedroom. 

Part 3
The Conclusion