a rollercoaster week

It has been a crazy busy and emotional week around our house!  Our journey to find a home had let us on an adventure of a lifetime.

In the beginning, we wanted to buy a home on 20 acres just outside town.  We knew it was "the" house for us but we needed to sell our home first.  Our house went on the market near the end of 2010 and we had high hopes and really thought it would sell fast.  It didn't and spring came, and then school let out for the summer and still we hadn't sold the house.  On June 1st, "the" house was no longer available.  We were pretty bummed but we couldn't do anything because ours was still "for sale".

Five weeks after "the" house was unavailable, we accepted an offer on our home.  We were over the moon and so thrilled to now have the opportunity to find our home in the country.

Then we found this beauty.

It was everything we were looking for but in a different zip code and different school district for the kids.  We had a lot of opportunities to become more unified as a family through our process of deciding if we should buy this home.  After a lot of prayer and a family fast we decided that YES, we were going to pursue this house.  After we received WONDERFUL news from the bank...we were ready to make our move.  Literally.  Ten days ago we made an offer and the seller accepted it right away.  When Matt told me, I cried and cried.  How exciting and scary at the same time!  On the Monday following the offer I took the kids out to the town and we toured the little school and met the principal and teachers.  Shortly after we arrived home I received a call that the seller decided to not sell and the house was no longer available.  WHAT??  I cried and cried for seemed like days and it left me speechless. Matt tried  figure out what was going on and even talked with the seller personally, face to face, and tried to work something out but in the end he isn't ready to move.  That was a week ago.

So, we close on our home in 15 days and don't have a home to purchase.  Thankfully, we have somewhere to live in the meantime.  It will be tight quarters and nearly all of our belongings will go into storage as we search for a home to buy.  We have faith that an opportunity will become available, but we just don't know when or how.  We know we have been down this road for a reason, though we don't know what that reason is right now.  We know our Heavenly Father is mindful of us and He knows what we need, and WHEN we need it.

The same day we found out we were could not buy the house, we had TWO hail storms and listened to the tornado siren screamed through town.  Of course Matt was at work for the first one because it was a crazy afternoon storm.  The kids and I scrambled to the basement and watched the huge hail bounce like ping pong balls on the grass and prayed that they wouldn't break the newly replaced glass in the windows.  It sounded like there was a stomp party on our roof...and we prayed that our roof that was just replaced a week prior would hold up.  After the first storm we went outside to hunt for the largest hail stones.  The largest ones broke on impact but we found a few keepers.  The evening storm wasn't as bad or last as long but it is still not a fun experience.

*that is my hand*

On Thursday we celebrated Cabelas 50th anniversary at a huge party at the fairgrounds!  It was amazing and I dare say that 90% of the town was there.  Can you imagine a traffic jam through town just to get to the party?  We heard from the CEO and the governor of Nebraska, ate delicious food and then let the kids play and play for four hours.  There were bounce houses and the National Guard set up a "boot camp", free soda, cotton candy and popcorn.  We didn't see the boys unless they came to check in before they ran off again with their friends.  Ella had a grand time just bouncing her little heart out and we finally left after 9 pm as they were closing down all the fun.  Hobbes kept Matt and I company for the evening and we had some fun discussions.  It was great to have a fun distraction amongst the emotional turmoil we were feeling.  It was a terrific celebration and Cabelas is a wonderful company to work for and be associated with! 

The rest of the week was occupied with a lot of packing and a search for an additional storage unit.  The house is looking and feeling very bare.  All of the decorations are down and out of the house already as well as some furniture.  The kids and I moved a bunch of boxes to the rental house on Saturday to make room in our home for more boxes.  Our goal is to move by the weekend or at least mostly be out of the house.  We'll see what happens by Saturday.

School starts this week too.  How can summer be over already?  We have had an amazing summer with several trips and other activities!  The boys and I are still mowing up to six lawns a week and somehow we'll continue to do it after school starts. 

We are on our own little adventure and we know it will take us where we belong, whenever that may be.  We are confident that there are reasons why we sold our house at this time and why those two houses did not work out for us at those moments.  Something will.  I know it.