seasons change...

We've spent the past 8-9 months with our home on the market- looking for a potential buyer. We've had probably 50-60 showings in those many months. So, of course, you can imagine how frustrated we've become as we've had buyer after buyer come in the doors and then leave with no offer made. Over the course of those 9 months, we've made repairs to the house- some cosmetic and some major. We've done every thing in our power to entice a buyer- including drop the price some $50k.

In the meantime, we've been building our dream home in Nolensville, TN- in a development called Ballenger Farms. Nolensville is a great small town- that was the perfect compromise between Chris' desire to be rural and mine to not be secluded. WE love Nolensville.

SO- I'll fast forward to Wednesday of this week. Chris went to work and called me saying that something was "wrong" at work. He said he suspected that someone may be getting laid off. An hour or so passed and he called me. His exact words were "do you want the good news or the bad news?" Of course, I requested the bad news first. He continued to inform me that his whole department/office was being laid off. I said "what's the good news?" His response- "I'm on my way home."

For us- this week- even in light of this 'bad' news- has been a peaceful and enlightening one. We started realizing that possibly the reason our prayers for our house to sell hadn't been answered because we needed to wait... for Chris' job to disappear. Confused? As the last week has unfolded, we have had clarity. The important things in life aren't what house we're living in or building or what job you slave away at all day. The important things in life are the lives of those people who you come home to every day. For us, our address doesn't matter... our family DOES. So, with all of that being said... we will be moving to Nolensville in three weeks (7/31). After speaking to our agent and lendor in Tennessee, it became clear that due to Chris' job loss that we won't be able to secure a loan for our dream home at this point. We signed the paperwork to release us from our contigent contract on our house today. On the flip side, we were able (in a very short amount of time- Thank You, Lord) to secure a 4 bdrm 3 bath 3k sq foot home in the SAME development in Nolensville to move into in just 3 weeks. Not only did we find a perfect replacement home in Nolensville but also secured a qualified renter on our home in Bel Air to move in on 8/1. One year leases all around- and acceptable terms for everyone. The craziness of this twist of events may scare some people... but we are secure and living in peace.

Life will be nuts over the next few weeks as we transition- but we've known for awhile that we were headed for change in our family... and now, it is finally coming. It will be bittersweet leaving our home of the last 11 years but exciting to walk into the next chapter.