Hello, Life Changes!

Whew! I am pretty sure my head is overwhelmed with details right about now! It's been an absolute whirlwind 9 days and I am a bit tired--mostly mentally I think. We flew up to Seattle early last Saturday morning and were picked up at the airport by our fantastic realtor (if anyone in Seattle needs a recommendation, let me know!). She had a list of about 9 places to show us, so we began right away. We liked a couple of them, but for various reasons neither of our top 2 choices at the end of the long day seemed like "the one." It felt like with either house we were saying "it's great...but...we'd be sacrificing this..." or "it is great but doesn't have this..." We'd kind of given up for the day and were heading back to the host family's house that we were staying with when we drove past a set of new town homes that we'd been by a few times already but hadn't really paid much attention to because the sign out front listed a price higher than our budget. As we drove by the last time Charles asked our realtor what she knew about them and she gave us the scoop. We decided to turn around and go check them out just for fun. As soon as we walked in I thought "oh crap. If we can't afford this, we never should have come in here!" I knew immediately, walking into the entry way that I was going to love this house. And I did. Everything about it. It was perfect. Our realtor told us the contractor really wanted to have them all sold by the end of the year, so much so that he would probably be willing to accept a low offer if we would close in December. So we went home, had a long conversation about budget, money, talked a lot with my parents about how to make this potentially happen, and went back the next day to look at the houses again. We decided to make an offer, convinced they would counter a little, and were absolutely shocked to learn that they really were willing to accept our initial offer if we'd close Dec. 16. We returned home and spent the rest of the week getting all kinds of paperwork, finances etc together to make this a reality. It's being inspected today, and if that goes well we'll be anxiously awaiting our closing date in mid-December! I love our new house, so much, and can't wait to show it off and have guests come to stay in our guest room!

Also last weekend while we were in Seattle we had the opportunity to spend a very full Sunday morning at our new church, being introduced to the congregation at both the 8:15 and 11:00 services and spending the Sunday school hour with the junior and senior high youth group being "interviewed" by the students to let them get to know us. We learned a TON of new names, met some fabulous and very welcoming people, and left feeling a bit overwhelmed but very excited about this new community and new job and new adventure in life! We have landed ourselves in an incredible church and we feel beyond blessed to be joining this place!

The other topic of conversation around our place has been our car situation, and what to do with both our vehicles. We'd like to become a one-car family when we move, especially since we only have a one-car garage at the new house, so one would need to be out on the street if we have two. It's more economical, and living in Seattle it's totally possible because the bus system is so fantastic there. But, which car do we keep? How do we decide? His car is perfect for all the hauling of teenagers, surfboards, camping gear, etc that we do regularly. My car gets way better gas mileage and would be perfect for everyday use around a city. Do we sell one here? Do we drive both to Seattle and sell one there to not have to worry about it in the next month? Do we sell both and use the money to buy something that would meet our needs a little better? (A smaller SUV, still with hauling room but not quite as large as his explorer?) These are just a few of the questions we've been wrestling with a lot this past week! I think we're pretty sure we know what we're going to do but we're still deciding a bit...

My parents were here this past weekend and since my dad spent 25 years working in the financial world and is super good at figuring out retirement plans, mutual funds, investments, etc he's been our main financial helper. He graciously spent hours with us on Friday getting all our finances straightened out, helping Charles figure out what mutual funds to sell, how to get our downpayment together, looking at our life insurance policies with us, getting both our individual retirement plans and mutual funds combined and all transferred from our respective companies to Charles Schwab so he can help us manage them a bit easier etc. We are so grateful for the time he spent with us, and know that it would have taken so much longer for us to figure this all out on our own! So THANK YOU dad! (And poor mom ended up reading in the Charles Schwab waiting room for a long time while we worked on finances!)

Then of course there is the question of "okay, how are we going to get all our stuff up to Seattle??" Thankfully that is one question we actually have an answer for! We have a pod reserved that they will bring us here in Pasadena on Jan. 5 and will deliver it to us in Seattle a week later--as of this morning it's reserved, delivery times are scheduled, and we feel great about having something concrete worked out!

Wow. No wonder my brain is tired! We've been thinking through a lot, we're already grieving and tearing up when we think about the goodbyes we need to say, which is probably also adding to the stress a little. I'm having all kinds of strange dreams about cars, money, and car seats not fitting in whatever new car I was driving in my dream. Hopefully this next week we can take some deep breaths and rest a little. We'd love any prayers you want to send our way as we think through all these major decisions! We'll keep you posted along the way!