from Lisa
You may notice that the last two posts, as well as this one, are all talking about "new" things. It's been two months since we came to South Bend, and we're still in that transition period. Some days, we really miss Bloomington and our friends there, but most of the time, we're completely stoked to be where we are and to be headed in the direction we seem to be going with our lives. Even still, some adjustment is required. Even little Ian is processing things in his own way, as evidenced by this conversation we had in the Jeep on Monday morning on our way to Meijer for this week's groceries:
Ian: "New church, Mommy?"
Me: "No, Ian, we're not going to the new church today. We're going to Meijer!"
(thoughtful silence on Ian's part)
Ian: "No old church....new church. No Marsh....Meijer."
Me: "That's right, Ian!"
(more thoughtful silence)
Ian: "No old house....new house. No IU....Bethel."
The little guy is obviously starting to realize that we have a different life than we used to. Thankfully, this fact doesn't seem to bother him much, but it's pretty interesting to hear him process the differences out loud. I'm sure there are things he misses about those "old" things, but at least he seems to be on board with embracing the "new" things. I'm so thankful!
Friday, September 19, 2008
New House!
Yep, we're buying a house. A few years ago, when the far-off idea of coming back to Bethel was just being tossed around in various people's heads, Eric and I began dreaming what that might entail.
"We could be professors at Bethel, starting a new program to help the school fulfill its mission. We could be involved in students' lives the way some key people were involved in our lives when we were students. And maybe, just maybe, we could buy a house in Bercliff Estates and live only blocks away from campus so we could walk to work every day and be accessible to the students we're mentoring."
At the time, it was all just pie-in-the-sky style dreaming. But now, we're actually living it. And quite often, we look at each other and say incredulously, "Can you believe this is actually happening?"
But it is. Even down to the part about living in the neighborhood we had hoped to someday live in.
The funny thing is, we looked at this house during our house-hunting marathon last spring, and ruled it out due to price and amount of work that needed to be done on it. However, since then, the house has become empty, the hardwood floors have all been refinished, and the price dropped within a reasonable distance of our price cap. So we thought, "Why not look at it again?" After doing so, we put an embarrassingly low offer on the house (which was the best we could do), and with some negotiation over a couple of weeks, it was accepted. Then came the round of inspections to deal with, where more negotiating took place. In the end, the sellers graciously conceded to let us have the house at a price we can easily afford and with a doable amount of work left to be done. Praise God!
So this will be our new home in another month or two:
We are so thankful to God that all of this is taking place! We just sit in incredulity at how He orchestrates things in ways we never would have imagined! Sometimes He gives us exactly what we want, and sometimes He gives us exactly what we need...which we then later realize was best all along. This situation happens to fit in both categories.
PS: For those of you who are Facebook users, I've posted more pictures of the inside of the house on my profile.
"We could be professors at Bethel, starting a new program to help the school fulfill its mission. We could be involved in students' lives the way some key people were involved in our lives when we were students. And maybe, just maybe, we could buy a house in Bercliff Estates and live only blocks away from campus so we could walk to work every day and be accessible to the students we're mentoring."
At the time, it was all just pie-in-the-sky style dreaming. But now, we're actually living it. And quite often, we look at each other and say incredulously, "Can you believe this is actually happening?"
But it is. Even down to the part about living in the neighborhood we had hoped to someday live in.
The funny thing is, we looked at this house during our house-hunting marathon last spring, and ruled it out due to price and amount of work that needed to be done on it. However, since then, the house has become empty, the hardwood floors have all been refinished, and the price dropped within a reasonable distance of our price cap. So we thought, "Why not look at it again?" After doing so, we put an embarrassingly low offer on the house (which was the best we could do), and with some negotiation over a couple of weeks, it was accepted. Then came the round of inspections to deal with, where more negotiating took place. In the end, the sellers graciously conceded to let us have the house at a price we can easily afford and with a doable amount of work left to be done. Praise God!
So this will be our new home in another month or two:
We are so thankful to God that all of this is taking place! We just sit in incredulity at how He orchestrates things in ways we never would have imagined! Sometimes He gives us exactly what we want, and sometimes He gives us exactly what we need...which we then later realize was best all along. This situation happens to fit in both categories.PS: For those of you who are Facebook users, I've posted more pictures of the inside of the house on my profile.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
