So we're having another baby. And we're super pumped about this and as mentioned in my previous post, we totally planned and prayed for this baby. But that doesn't change the fact that with said baby's arrival, we will have out grown out house. By like 2 people and a dog.
True story.
We have a great home-- it's older and we've fixed and changed and moved things until it's just as we like-- we have an amazing back yard for little boys-- it's fenced and big and flat, and they can play and play while I stand at the sink washing dishes, putting dishes away, and/ or folding laundry all while keeping them in my eye sight. For a mom, that's like seriously heaven-- to be fully aware of your children and their safety while not being able to hear them at all-- can I get an "ahhhhh" sigh of bliss?? We also have a long flat driveway, with a perfect parking pad for Chad and his truck and work stuff, with a garage for me and all the babes I load and unload in the rain, sleet, and snow. Ok, mostly rain, because we live in Georgia, but it's a perk nonetheless.
And did I mention that our mortgage is really small?? We bought it when the economy tanked right before Max was born and so let's just say that it's one of those monthly bills that isn't exactly fun because can "bill" and "fun" be in the same sentence? But it doesn't hurt like it could, and when Chad's business gets slow after the holidays as it always does, we can still make all our ends meet, thanks to our Heavenly Father... lovely!!
So after speaking with my favorite handy man/ contractor/ builder... aka my father in law... we decided to get an estimate to build onto the back of our house-- we wanted a little sitting room that would temporarily be a baby room and once baby was sleeping and got move up with the other kids it would turn into a playroom/ sunroom of sorts, and a master bedroom/ bathroom, because apparently back in the 70's when our house was built, it was a great idea to make the master bed/ closet/ bath the SMALLEST in the whole house and face it, my wardrobe consisting of before children that I'll never wear again but refuse to throw away, maternity that I like to wear for 9 months every year, skinny post children which takes me at least 6 months post-baby to fit into, and fat post children which I spend way too much time in, just doesn't fit on my 2 feet of hanging shelf. Basically Chad's Dad helped us think through it all, then we conveyed it to a contractor who was great and took measurements and pictures and came up with this beautiful drawing that made my heart flutter... all to the tune of $65,000..... um, hello, if we had $65,000 cash in our pockets to throw on a house, we'd just go buy a new one.
So.... we proceeded to option #2-- renting for a year or so until we were ready to buy again, all while keeping our house and renting it out as well. (Chad wants to keep our house long term, even once we really do buy another because he loves it and because it's a great rental property.) So we've been looking and looking for months and months and seriously, nothing fits what we want. It's been so frustrating. A lot of the houses we really liked wouldn't fit my car in the garage. I drive a minivan people- nothing fancy- and not a tank. Just a regular ole swagger wagon. OR lots of houses have drive under garages... um I won't get into details but picture a post-pregnant woman lugging a 3 year old, 2 year old and baby up and down a full set of stairs, not to mention bags, groceries, and all the other luxurious items that come with motherhood... it wouldn't be pretty. Our garage to house now has like 7 stairs and some days it's a mountain-- I can't imagine a whole staircase. Seriously, we would have to order in each night unless Publix began delivering in Woodstock. We also saw houses that were dirty or didn't have storage or worse yet-- no back yard. And when you look at renting, you have to be willing to live there AS IS for a full year otherwise you're throwing money away, because it's not your house so any updates/ additions wouldn't be to your advantage and you'd get nothing out of it.
Finally on Friday, we found a house that was doable-- there were some things that weren't awesome and but we had resigned ourselves to just settle... and after we left the house and headed to dinner, Chad ran into a concrete post in the parking lot with his truck tire and his truck tire alone-- no other part of his truck-- and it still managed to total the thing. Not even kidding. He was going like 5 miles an hour, if that, swinging wide to park, and bam. It left him with burns and bruises on his arm, and the tire hit just right so that is broke the frame of his truck in half. My instant reaction was relieve that he was fine and no one else was involved. He instant reaction was total annoyance, calling himself names and questioning what God was teaching him or trying to show him. By the time the weekend was over, I realized the lesson was for me-- simplify Lauren-- wait for Me Lauren-- don't settle to fit your timeline, listen to what I'm saying.
God had been whispering in my ear that we just needed to sit tight in our house for a bit and it would literally make my eyes water... with tears. Tears of a baby not getting her way... tears of a mommy wanting the new baby to have a place to sleep that wouldn't disrupt the rest of her brood... tears of wanting more and bigger and better. But it took this little truck incident for me to get it-- and when I got it, it was instant. Who the heck cares if Gabe and Max share a room with bunk beds?? Certainly not them! They think it's going to be a party. And so what if the we need to re-arrage our room to fit a bassinet long term, and so what if Jack and baby both have cribs in the same room? Seriously, we were about to pay a lot more money to settle elsewhere, when we can just "settle" on the number of bedrooms for a bit, and save money, continue making improvements, AND wait for the Lord to show us what's next--- maybe it will be adding onto our house after we win a mini-lottery, or maybe this time next year, the perfect house will open up and we'll be ready to put another down payment on a house-- but in the meantime, let's just stay and settle in to our home a little more... not to mention, settle into God's plan for us, instead of mine.
I'm so grateful for a patient God who continues to work on my heart-- and a patient husband who continued to walk out this housing road with me, although he was content with what he have the whole time. I'm a lucky lady-- the only thing I need is more Jesus!
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