Wait for it. . .

Even with our strong preference to stay in our ward, we didn't completely rule out looking in other areas. We had to try to accept the idea that maybe the Lord had something else in store for us. We had looked at a batch of houses in Keizer, but we were unimpressed. The more it seemed like we were running out of options in West Salem, I began to search in other areas. Last Saturday, we looked at a few houses near Grant's work and some in south Salem. This time, we saw something we liked.

Again, it was higher priced than we could pay, but closer to our range than others had been. This house stood out to us as a really good fit. So, we offered what we could first thing Monday morning, trying not to get our hopes up. Tuesday, we received a counter offer. It was much more reasonable than we expected. Long story short (if that's even possible at this point), we are now under contract to buy a new home. We still have to get through the inspection and escrow, which is my worst nightmare. I won't ever feel like it's really ours until the keys are in our hands. But if all goes well, we will have a new home. I'll be holding my breath until then.

It's bittersweet to think that we could be done searching. I felt like we were saying, "See you later," to our ward and friends in West Salem. Now, I'm realizing it was really a goodbye that we never said because we thought we were coming back. Grant's mom had a chance to view the house with us this week, and she said, "I really didn't want to like the house, but I do." I feel the same way. I wanted us to find a great house like that in West Salem. I didn't want the best option to be somewhere else. We never wanted to leave, but we have to do what's best for our family. This feels right.

It was such a blessing the way everything fell into place for the sale of our house. It went on the market on Monday, had a full price offer on Friday. Since it was such a short sale, the appraiser fudged the square footage a bit in order to help the house's worth match its price to satisfy the lender. Also, after we turned over the keys, they discovered that a pipe to a hose on the side of the house had a leak. We had never known about it because we had kept the head of our bed against that wall, so we never saw any signs of it. The person doing the home inspection didn't catch it, so we didn't have to do anything about it. The inspector was the one to blame, and our buyer was left with the repairs. We did feel badly about how it worked out for her, but it would have been a catastrophe if we had ended up dealing with that mess.

I had certainly hoped we would have such an easy time finding a house as we did selling ours, but I didn't expect it to be that easy. It felt like we had already been blessed more than we deserved. Then we found this house. I couldn't believe the seller lowered the price to a point where we could possibly afford it. The house is clearly worth more. It has a great yard. The neighborhood is safe. We've heard nothing but good things about it and the schools. I didn't imagine that it would still be in the same ward as some of our friends out south, but it is. We already know people in the ward. There are so many things right about this house, that we had to ignore the one thing that was wrong: it wasn't in our same ward in West Salem. Ever since we decided to accept the counter offer, I have felt such peace. I know we have been blessed, and I can't be ungrateful just because it all didn't fit into the plan we made. I am so happy.

Of course, now it's a waiting game until our close date. I will be biting my nails the whole time. When we bought our first home, it seemed like the seller did everything they possibly could to make things difficult. I hope we don't meet similar challenges with this home. Our inspection is Tuesday. Oh, and if you're wondering, we won't be in the house before the baby is born. Our close date is currently Sept. 4th. My due date is Sept. 7th (we can thank Grant for the foresight on that one. But in his defense, on the original offer, we just went with a date our agent came up with, and our agent told the seller our close date was as flexible as she might need it to be. I guess it just didn't occur to Grant at the time that Sept. 4th might not be the best option). We're going to try to push the close date back, but if it doesn't work for the seller, we'll just go with things as they are. We know we have some challenges ahead of us, but we're just going to make do the best we can. Until then, we just have to wait. . .