Apparently driving for sixteen hours, sleeping in the back of the truck, on the floor, etc, is not good for one's back. Especially if one already has a ruptured disk.
In other news, the renters needed three small things done to the house; a tub stopper, some door stoppers and I forget what else. This Keith took as a bad sign and I felt that way at first too. It seemed knick picky and well, we pay our realtor's husband thirty dollars an hour for repairs on the house and that's a little steep for getting a door stopper put in.
However, on second thought, I'm choosing to believe that these renters are just conscientious, detail oriented people and they want to get off to a good, clean start on their two year lease. And that bodes well.
Also, we found a loan officer that has a bank that will consider the rental property as extra income on the new house loan. That happened today and that is totally awesome and a bonus good thing. The loan officer is off locking us into the nice, low rate that the VA assures us and tomorrow we head off to see two houses and most likely will start the paperwork process then.
Naturally, I am very excited about this. I do not even mind getting up at five thirty am in order to get there on time.
We will start at the first house, which is about twenty thousand dollars cheaper than the second. But it is very cozy, has a wood stove already in it, a cute kitchen, three bedroom and two bathrooms and a two car garage. It's a nice little brick ranch with a nice lawn.
The second one, though, is larger and not only does it have a two car garage, but is has a huge, two vehicle pole barn with electricity. That sold Keith in the one moment it took to see it. It also has an adorable kitchen with an archway into the dining area and large, light and airy rooms, three bedrooms, two bathrooms. It's on half an acre and further out into the country, which is right up our alley.
We will probably end up getting that house and I just can't wait. I want a home. I want to cook, I want to take walks, I want to get some chicks and a chicken coop for my thirty second birthday and possibly...wait for it...possibly a milk cow.
I know, I know. Waking up every morning to milk it. Craziness, sheer craziness. Which is why I'm just mulling it over. But part of me longs for the soothing rhythm and down to earthy-ness which a cow represents.
I feel that I must make clear something though. There have been times, all along this journey, from Keith calling me from Iraq to tell me about the PCS move until right now, while we wait to pick a house and our stuff sits in storage while our other house is rented out to people who need door stoppers, when we have been down right terrified. We've had many a second or third thought.
But it has been incredibly clear to Keith and I that God was leading us along step by step. I hate to use "church-ese" but I don't know any other way of putting it. It's something about choosing to be peaceful and to rest in the question while having faith that it will be answered in a natural fashion when the time is right, and then, amazingly, watching exactly that happen.
And I am incredibly grateful and I just wanted to publicly state that, somehow. God never promised that life will be easy or painless and I never worry about asking for that. Sometimes, after many years of mixed up church-ness, I find myself sticking to simply the prayer Jesus taught the disciples or a prayer that I learned through "The Scent of Water," by Elizabeth Gouge: "Into Thy hands, Thee I adore, Thy will be done."
It's a very easy and beautiful prayer and it works for all occasions. I'll probably need it tomorrow.
