The last checkpoint

So how was YOUR week? Ours was a little crazy. Wonderful, good, blessed crazy. Here's the story:

Nine days ago, we were considering maybe buying some investment property. Something small and cheap, just to put a foot in the door of the property market, because buying something for us was Way Out Of Our League. So the idea was to buy something rentable. Rent it. And live in a rented house ourselves.

Eight days ago, we saw something online which looked nice and affordable. Our first thought: What's wrong with it? Why is it tens of thousands of dollars cheaper than houses of equivalent size in equivalent areas? So we went to take a look. And it was lovely.

So we hastened home and did some hasty mathematics. We asked for some parental help to put a deposit together. And we put in an offer. And we GOT IT! The next 72 hours were a scramble of paperwork, mortgage company phone calls, insurance negotiations and more and more paperwork.... but by Tuesday night we were in escrow.

[ Let me just say here that my admiration for the Proverbs 31 woman has shot through the roof. In addition to waking up early to feed her household and always having instructive words of kindness on her tongue and always dressing well etc etc, she also "considers a field and buys it". Now I know that "considering a field and buying it" is CONSIDERABLY more work than I had realized :-)]

Seriously. We went from "not looking for a house" to "in escrow" in under 100 hours. The process thus far has had God's fingerprints all over it: the timing of the house, the financing, the season of the year, the words of advice people have given, the help that has been offered... It's miraculous and I cannot help but humbly thank God for hearing my low-in-faith mumbled prayers over the past years of "God, I would love for us to own a home in Davis." I honestly did not believe it could happen. I did not think think that the bridge between what-we-could-afford land and what-we-could-live-in-land would be crossed. Not in Davis.

But here we are in escrow. The inspections are taking place this week, and provided ten thousand termites are not silently lurking below the floorboards, so far we look set to move in a little over a month. Amazing!

And so, dear friends, in less than a week, without planning or intention and with great joy and surprise, we have passed the last checkpoint to real adulthood: we are in Significant Mortgage Debt :-) For some reason, I feel like we are real grown-ups now. And so, with childlike excitement to match this very grown-up responsibility, here are a few pictures of the house for our far-flung family to look at:

I think if you click on the picture you will be able to see more detail. It is a two-story, four-bedroom house. There are two bedrooms and one bathroom on each floor. Only the ground floor is pictured here. All the central living areas have pretty hardwood floors with some nice slate inlay detail. The yard is unfinished but spacious, and we are looking forward to putting lots of edible things in there!

Deo Volente, it is ours in a month :-) We are so thankful. So stunned. So excited. God has provided for us in a hundred small ways to make this happen, and we stand amazed.