AN ADVENTURE IN PROGRESS
Almost everyone loves an adventure! An adventure has a way of bringing excitement and anticipation into our lives. There was an element of adventure when I started writing posts for this project. From the onset my hope has been that by sharing actual life experiences from my life and faith journey I could offer some measure of hope and encouragement to a person reading what I had written. Recently it occured to me perhaps writing about an in progress experience from our lives could serve my original desire for the blog. With that thought in mind I want to tell you all about our adventure in progress.
When we moved into our new home in early 2017 my wife Patty and I both assured the other we were here to stay. An old folks home, assisted living or the promised land would be the next stop for us. Normally in our over forty one years together, whenever a move occurred, I have been the one initiating the discussion. To our surprise about a year ago Patty began initiating the discussion that perhaps we should consider selling our home and making a move. Several realities came into focus as reasons for selling the home we love. We are getting older each birthday rather than younger, we are caring for our 18 month old granddaughter one and one half days per week and driving to pick her up and return her home when we do so, and we began attending a different church and wanted to be closer to allow us to be more involved. There are other pertinent reasons as well which are part of our consideration leading up to considering the decision. We made some inquiries in two different communities in the area when we first began discussing the possibility. By that time it was Fall and based on our own assessment and professional advice we received, we put the idea on pause with the intent of deciding whether to move forward in the Spring. During the months from Fall to Spring much discussion and prayer went into the possibility of actually making a move. During these months we now realize God was at work changing Patty’s heart into alignment with His plan for us, as well as myself, and giving us both an inner assurance we were moving into His best plan for our lives. The inner peace we both were experiencing gave us confidence to move forward.
We began making preparation to place our home on the market about mid April. As we prepared, an unexpected plan to stage the home for selling emerged. If you are not familiar with what happens when a home is staged for market, well lets just say almost everything in the home is removed and more contemporary furniture and decorating items replace your stuff. It’s ok but it’s difficult if you plan to live in the home while it is being sold. There were two and a half weeks of hectic packing and moving out items we had not planned for. Our home went on the market May 12th and everyone anticipated a quick sale. Average days on the market for our area was four. It did not sell during the first week. Interest rates were rising. The market was changing rapidly. Price reductions were showing up on some listings and after about ten days we, on advice of our realtor, made a reduction to the price. That proved to be a wise decision as we received two offers within the next four days. Our closing is scheduled for June 30th.
What I have not mentioned is we do not have a home to move into. Part of our marketing plan was to ask for a rent back provision for up to sixty days to give us time to purchase a home and move. God cares about every detail of our lives. The offer we accepted has the provision we needed to give us the time we asked for. We knew this would be an adventure as well as an exercise of our Faith. It is proving to be just that. We are excited to see and experience what God has in store for us. In an upcoming post I will write about what happens next!