Our First Home!!!

Folks, it's official. 

Ummmm...... I am excited. I mean..really, really, really, really super excited! We feel so lucky. In more ways than I can list off. But heck, who am I to hold back. 

So, here's our quick story! AMC and I had this whole 'Crossley House Buying Game Plan' pretty much figured out: save enough money and buy a steal-of-a-deal home. (And when I say steal, we really were thinking a $50k foreclosed diamond in the rough, of course. A beautifully, well-taken care of model home that previous owners simply couldn't afford anymore for some reason or another.) 

And pay for it in full. Up front. No biggie.

Right??? "What a sweet game plan" is probably what you must, huh?!

Reality check. The real estate market isn't quite that bad. We can occasionally be dreamers and completely unrealistic with our goals when left to ourselves.

As we searched realtor.com (A few times each day because we were that excited and knew at any moment we could happen upon the one) we were beginning to realize the reality check with the unfortunately semi-stable market.

Okay, not a problem. A couple $10k more into the budget and we would still find a beautiful home to love, expand our family in, and where we could live happily ever after.

Home Buyer 101: EVERYTHING IS TOTALLY TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.

It's true.  Well, I take that back. Only to the cheap people with slightly unrealistic dreams. Pictures will be deceiving, sellers will lie through their teeth, real estate agents will be selfishly mean, foreclosed homes will be completely trashed, neighborhoods will be trashy.  It was tough. A few hugs from my mom calmed my discouraged heart. It had been months and we just hadn't found the right home yet. I was questioning how I would know that I had found the right home? I liked a lot of houses. And all of them were in okay neighborhoods. Despite the way I'm sounding picky...I really wasn't. I didn't have high expectations. I just wanted to find a spark. I wanted to feel excited--not simply okay.  I knew I could find it...if it was the perfect home for us. We prayed and prayed to have the Lord guide our decisions about the houses we would search. And, it happened. We walked into the home and both of our eyes lit up! It was beautiful, it was open and spacious, it was updated, it had the perfect size backyard, it had a gameroom that I thought wouldn't be possible within our budget. It's perfect! For us. We felt strong "YES's" and strong "NO's" towards every home that we looked at during that last trip. Gosh, I feel really loved by Heavenly Father for making this last house hunting trip so easy for us. He didn't have to. I'm sure other homes we looked at could have worked out just fine. But, He knew what we needed help to take the next step in choosing a home. Each time I thought about how I felt, and that those feelings didn't come from me caused my heart to ache and tears  to fill my eyes. An ache that was accompanied with the reality that He is there. He does want my heart/faith to strengthen in Him. I think that He must really love to know that I really need Him.

Say hello to the newest addition to our family.

Who would've thought that signing a contract binding me to a ridiculous amount of money towards a home, could make me loose so much sleep. In the good sort of way. 

Why I feel the need to stalk HGTV.com instead of sleep is beyond me.
And to search a 5 mile radius for cute shops, Targets, and Sonic drive-in's. It's all true. 

Maybe, hopefully, once we move in and begin making the house our home I can finally join AMC at night: knocked out enjoying his restful dreams for nearly 4-5 hours before I could even think about finding my yoga breath to let me sleep.
For now, I am too excited that I just don't mind.

Yours truly, Me