SOLD

The Martens 5 will be officially homeless starting August 5th. Can't believe I just typed that sentence. Ever pray/wish/dream for something so hard, and then it finally comes true and you want to vomit out of fear because you got what you asked for?
BARF.
We put our house on the market March 10th. We sold it on June 21st. We close on August 2nd. We have to be out by noon on Sunday, August 5th. We won't even be able to come "home" after church to change our clothes.
I know I have documented the frustrations of selling a house....the constant cleaning, the emotional roller coaster, the waiting game for a showing, the waiting game for feedback, the frustration of getting positive feedback but no buyer, the constant cleaning....I am so thankful to have that part be over. We are back to making messes (although I can't stop the compulsion to pick up the house throughout the day and before I leave to go somewhere) and I don't feel the need to check my phone every 5 minutes to see if we have a showing. Sweet Freedom!
Here is the story of the selling: People came to look on Tuesday night. They liked the house. They scheduled a second showing for Wednesday night and told us they would make a decision to purchase between our home and one other. They made the offer after looking at ours. Our realtor called and told us she had an offer, came to our house around 8:30 pm and we began the process of a counter offer.
Here is where reality bites. We priced our home to sell, but still enough to make a little profit...or so we thought. Turns out the seller pays closing costs (most of the time) in addition to several other fees. By the time the realtor gets paid, the fees are paid, blah blah blah....we owed money. CRAP. It feels pretty sickening to have to pay someone to buy our house. Not a lot of money in the big picture, but still...not expected by naive us. So we counter offered and they accepted. They pay us more toward the total price of the house and we take less to closing. I found out they accepted our counter offer while shopping in the bread aisle of Wal-mart....my life is so sexy.
Since Thursday afternoon our life has been pretty surreal. The girls are excited, scared, sad. This is the only home they've known and we have made a lot of great memories here. We love this house but needed more space. As I am sitting out on my deck this morning I realize how much I am going to miss my backyard. ((sigh)) I have made a personal vow to sit outside every morning and enJOY this space.
In the meantime, we are trying to find someplace to go. We literally will be homeless if we don't find somewhere to rent for the next several months. There are no houses for sale that we want to purchase and the plan to build will happen, but needs a few more months of saving money. Rental places are not abundant right now in Kearney so if you are a pray-er, please add this to your list....if you are a crosser, please cross your fingers, eyes and toes. We aren't looking for a palace, just safe and clean.
This is going to occupy my blog for the next month.....although I promise to sprinkle in some adorable gratuitous pictures of the girls. The next 30 days is full of swim lessons, drama camp, VBS, acro, basketball, piano/vocal lessons, choir camp, church camp, Jane's birthday and MOVING.
God is so good....all ways....always.