Last week, early Friday morning, we discovered a cute little house in excellent condition within our price-range. It seemed to have everything we were looking for... only I wasn't extremely fond of the location. Nevertheless, we immediately scheduled with our realtor to take a look at it. Throughout the day, we told our friends about it too. It seemed so promising. After numerous attempts, our realtor informed us late that evening that she just couldn't get the selling agent to respond. It seemed that within less than 12 hours of our inquiry about it, the listing was taken down because another buyer made an offer and it went under contract. We were both disappointed, everything else about the place would have been great.
That night, as I laid in bed reflecting on the events of the day, I remembered that morning when I was up on campus waiting for my friend, Jennifer, to give her forth-day lecture for Education Week. I made it to class a few minutes early. The hum of friendly chatter filled the room as people found their seats and greeted one another. I met a sweet woman in her late 70's and we talked as we waited for the lecture to begin. Jennifer came around the back of the room and turned up the isle I was sitting on. She patted me on the shoulder as she passed and asked how our house hunting was going.
With a sigh, I replied, "We backed out of the house in the 11th ward. There were way too many issues with it."
"Oh no. I'm so sorry to hear that." she said sincerely. In the same breath she asked, "Have you re-considered my friend Sherry's house in the 6th ward? She hasn't had any bites on her place at all." Jennifer looked at the clock. Class was starting soon. "Think about it," she said as she waved and hurried to the front of the room. Sherry works with Jennifer in the Stake Young Women's Presidency. Sherry received notice that her family had to move out of their home the exact same day we discovered we had to leave ours..., only her situation was that her husband was being offered a job in Idaho.
Flashback One Month Ago:
Jennifer called me after one of her presidency meetings to tell us about her friend's house and encouraged us to arrange a time to walk through it. We set up an appointment the next day. Sherry's place was one of the very first homes we looked at. It's was a charming little house built in 1895 with a front porch like I've always wanted, a rod-iron fence, a large fireplace, an attic for the children to play in, and a swing hanging from a gorgeous tree in the front yard. But the cost was a little higher than our target price. Plus, it only had three rooms and one was just barely large enough to fit two children. State law requires that the foster kids must have at least 40 sq ft of bedroom space for each child.
I really hadn't considered that house again until Jennifer reminded me about it over a month later that morning in her Education Week class. "Have you re-considered my friend Sherry's house?...Think about it,"
Well, I did think about it... in fact, it was all I could think about during Jennifer's lecture.
I imagined to myself how I could make that 3-bedroom place work and how we could afford to pay slightly more per month.
The foster kids have bedroom-living-space regulations but I can let my biological kids have a room anywhere we want. Maybe it could work? That's when I recalled that there was sort-of a forth room there even though they couldn't include it as such in the listing. It was a small little space right off the entry way that was not much larger than a good-sized walk-in closet. It could fit a twin mattress and still have a couple square feet left over. Chandler would take that room without any objection... he has always expressed how badly he wants a room of his own. Well, he could have it here.. It would be tight but I really don't think he'd mind so much as long as it made him feel more independent.
I discussed with Joseph my ideas of how we could make the 1895 house work. He agreed and definitely felt more comfortable with the move-in conditions of the place compared to other homes we had looked at. We still couldn't believe that no one had made an offer on it yet.
We put our bid in Saturday morning and then right on our heels came another bid Monday. But the owner had not only heard my name from her friend, Jennifer... It turns out that the Stake Primary President, whom I'll be serving with, had a conversation with the seller about me Sunday. I don't know what the other bid was but the seller ended up accepting ours Monday night. We offered just barely below asking price and we're so glad we moved on this place when we did.
There are lots of things I really love about this new home of ours but my favorite is that it's still very close to the place I love so much and to our beautiful City Center Temple. Even within its walls there are reminders of that Temple, complete with stain-glass windows and the same circle and square or "heaven and earth" motif in the door frames. :)
I think I'm gonna like it here.
-Alicia
Some of my biggest take-away's from the marriage classes have been my need to purposefully and deliberately choose a more positive vocabulary. When expressing desires or emotions with Joseph and the kids, I know that I set the tone quite often in my home... It's good for me to evaluate if my conversations are centered on complaining or complimenting. I think by praying daily for the ability to recognize the law of the harvest in my home, I will more consciously sow positive expressions and sincere praise.
