Home, Sweet Home

God makes me smile. He delights in blessing us.  He loves to surprise us with His amazing fatherly love, especially when we aren't expecting it.  Recently, He gave us a great big gift, out of the blue, and I am so thankful.

In December, I started dreaming, and looking at houses online in Cheyenne, knowing that our apartment lease would be up at the end of February.  But I didn't dream for long.  Jake and I had talked about it and we didn't feel like it was the right time for us to buy a house, and really, the apartment was just fine for the two of us. So, we decided that we would renew our lease for another 6 months.  In an effort to practice being content and not give in to consumerism and always wanting something 'bigger and better', I agreed to stay where we were - in our two bedroom apartment.

So, mid-January, we informed our apartment management that we would renew our lease another semester.  They told us that they would draw up the paperwork and we would need to come back to sign.  In the meantime, one night, we randomly started looking into the first time home buyer tax credit. As we began talking to people about it, it soon became clear that, if we were planning on buying a house in the near future, it would be foolish not to buy now.  Thus started the prayerful search for a home.

In a matter of a couple weeks we found the house we liked, put in an offer, went back and forth on the price a of couple times, settled on a price, and set a closing date for 30 days later: February 30th!

And now, here we are in the first house we've ever owned, feeling totally blessed and loving our new dwelling!  Perhaps the fact that we spent our first two years of marriage in a one-bedroom studio (more like a hotel suite) with most of our items in storage, and our third year in a two bedroom apartment, makes this two-story townhouse seem so luxurious!  It could also be the fact that, growing up in Europe I am more accustomed to apartment living.  We now have three bedrooms, three bathrooms, an unfinished basement, a two-car garage (no more scraping snow off our cars, and we no longer have to keep our summer tires under the card table in our office!), a little deck and landscaped yard.  I now have the joy of doing the laundry in my pajamas, without needing quarters, at whatever time of day I want, and I can even leave the clothes in the machine without worrying about neighbors needing to use the washer or dryer!  It  almost seems too good to be true.  We have been overwhelmed by God's goodness and His provision, and our prayer is that we would honor God in the way we use this home.

Oh, and we also have a guest bedroom, so please come and visit!

(Pictures will be coming.)