A Season of Thanks

It's the day after Thanksgiving and my list of things for which I am thankful seems endless. I tend to look over the last year to review all the changes, all the things that have remained or gotten better. Wow! It's been a great year.

In February 2007, Rick and I decided to "take the plunge" and look for a much needed larger house. We (or should I say I) had crunched the numbers and we felt we could afford this change. We met with our Realtor at 1pm and by 5pm WE WERE SIGNING A CONTRACT on a house in the process of being built!! Wow! A new house - and all the details had already been decided (we did select appliances - all NEW). We closed March 30th.

Since the kids are AD/HD, the idea of disrupting their world was discomforting to say the least (probably mostly to me). I felt the best thing was to keep life as normal as possible, until the last moment. The night before closing, I boxed up the kitchen - they were both disoriented the next morning getting ready for school. Ok, so we'd factored in 2-3 months to "sort thru" as we moved from the old and into the new (everything would be "put in place" as we moved it in.)

Well, that was the plan. We discovered that Rick's brother needed to move out of his mom's house (no surprise there) and they asked if they could "rent-to-own" our place. Well, we'd planned on selling, the equity would pay off some debts, but if the mortgage, etc was covered, we thought helping them out would be good as long as they understood the process of getting out would be slow. Things changed, and they needed in earlier than we'd planned - May 1st, only giving us 30 days - not near enough time to "clear out smoothly". Things were just piled into the garage ot the new house

Then we discovered the kids GPAs had dropped so much in school, they had lost their spot to return to Magnet (despite trying to get 504 plans in place). We decided to launch a legal appeal, which took MOST of our spare time during the summer (so much for "unpacking"). The possibility of needing to place BOTH the kids in private schools was very disconcerting given our financial situation.

This was the same time we realized the financial strain of not selling the old house. Their purchase in May 2008 could not come soon enough. Then they realized they needed to take care of other things and would not be able to buy the house as planned. I was starting to have regrets, but we realized their need was greater, and relieving their mother of their dwelling responsibility was greater than our need for a little more financial comfort (we refigured, and cut a few more things).

But all was not bad - we won BOTH appeals (with LOTS of legal input from friends, etc). The kids were going back to Magnet schools.

All this while the strain of Rick's job grew almost daily. Now with the new house and financial issues, simply walking out was not an option. God granted Rick the reward for his patience and loyalty - Rick's last day with Regions was Oct 31, 2007. He has started a new job and absolutely loves it - the peace from loss of stress is an amazing thing.

Now, we have enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner in our new home with Rick's mother and 2 grandmothers. The kids are anxiously awaiting the time to start decorating for Christmas. I finally hung some pictures Monday (only 7 1/2 months later). I have not been able to do the decorating I would have liked to due to financial constrains, but we are enjoying the space. The "unclutter" has been great for their peace of mind - their 1st report cards were 3.0 (Cait) and 3.5 (Sean) - MUCH improved from last year. So I guess the garage unpacking can just take it's time if this is the benefit!!!

A new house, better GPA's, a new job, less stress!!! God has shown his presence in our lives over and over again in the last year. What more could a girl want!!!