Out on a Limb

While on vacation, driving between El Paso and San Antonio, we got a call from our Realtor saying that someone had put an offer on our house for the full listing price. Thousands of miles from home, we found ourselves scrambling to find ways to print off emailed contracts, and fax documents to our Realtor. We used hotel lobby computers, temporary library memberships, and even grocery store fax machines to do business along the way.

Last week was a blur of activity around the house. We had a few minor things to repair in order to meet the inspection requirements, and only a few days to get the list knocked out. My in-laws graciously volunteered to join the work force, and came to the house bearing gifts of food and willing hands to work. My mother-in-law fed the troops and the whole family went to work with shovels, paint brushes, and screw drivers. We got so much accomplished in a short amount of time.

The next three weeks will be critical.  We still have another inspection, the appraisal, and finally, the close of escrow.  As you know, anything can happen in escrow so we are in a place of  COMPLETE dependence on God right now.  The future is completely unknown.

We've been busting at the seams of our little house in the woods for quite some time, and when we put our house up for sale, we knew that it was just the first of many steps to get to where we'd like to be in terms of land and house size.  We also knew we would have to be patient  because Arizona was hit so hard in the housing boom that the real estate market has been extremely volatile.  Lenders are really tight, and good pieces of land are few and far between.

Here's what we're dealing with right now:

Right now we have only three weeks to pack the house, knowing in the back of our minds that if at any moment, things fall apart, we'll have to unpack it all. The good news is that this gives us an opportunity to get rid of the "stuff" that we've accumulated over the last decade.

Right now we have three kids on three different baseball teams, and my husband coaches two teams.  Every evening is filled with baseball, and we must honor our commitments to those teams. My husband is at the end of his semester of online college courses, and he must finish strong.  So on top of our usual commitments, we're trying to prepare for a huge move while working around baseball and school schedules.

Right now we are looking for a rental house to live in while we search for either some land with an existing house, or begin the building process.  The hard part is that we can't sign a contract for a new house until we hand the keys over from the sale of this house.  The farm ground we had our eyes on for the last six months went into escrow just 4 days before our own home went into escrow. Thankfully God opens and closes doors for us, and has a plan, even when we can't see it.

Right now we are preparing to move into the great unknown. We still have all of our pasture land, so none of the livestock will be displaced... just people... and maybe chickens.  Who knows? Maybe we'll throw the chickens in as a free gift with the purchase of the house. HA!


It's truly an exciting, yet stressful time.  We have to keep our eyes focused on Jesus while we're out on a limb, because if we look down, we may be terrified!


Please keep us in your prayers!

Nell