Which is where we find ourselves today. Faced with something potentially hard...which would be: trying to sell our house. Trying to figure out how much money we can afford to loose and still have a down payment for a new house. Trying to learn how to live in the tension of...we think its the best plan to get out of our (quickly demoralizing) neighborhood, but if we can't....we trust in the protection and grace of God to cover us.
The plan. The plan was never to live here forever. The plan was to live someplace centrally located so we could be near our families, our work (north at the time for me and south for Josh) and to live within our means. Our home on the north-west side of Indianapolis solved these problems for us. We imagined our home would provide enough room for us to start our family here, and then we would move--to a different township offering better public school options. Of course we couldn't have anticipated what the economy was going to do when we bought our home nearly seven years ago. (how much do we wish that we were just renters coming into a buying situation!? things would be GREAT then! :) So instead of our home being an investment it has depreciated well below what we even owe on it. Which is, well, sad. Frustrating. Humbling. Because, its out of our hands. Well out of our control. We can't do much about it. I'm thankful that we didn't make all the upgrades that I wanted to make over the years because we'd only be loosing that much more. Ugh.
I hadn't even anticipated putting our home on the market until this summer. Because...well...because I didn't want the hassel. I have a newborn. I nurse him every 2-4 hours. I have children that nap AND its winter...where are we supposed to go all the time for showings? Super inconvenient. I was in no rush. Our relator convinced us to list anyways in hopes of getting the highest return on our house...because its likely that there are going to be hundreds of more foreclosures released in the next several months that could potentially drop our home value even more. Sigh. More sighs.
So, we have a sign in our yard :)
(I'm trying to upload a picture of our house with the sign in the front yard...but having a hard time...so...just use your imagination :))
We've listed our house. We spent the weekend making small upgrades to the house and cleaning and de-cluttering...and cleaning and de-cluttering...and...you get the idea.
So pray...pray that we can sell our house. I feel...strangely peaceful about it all. I don't know. I'm just not worried. I know that God knew our situation would happen long before we even anticipated and I know he is GOOD and wants good things for us. For the first time in a long time...about something kind of big...I'm just weirdly calm about it all. Our house meets our needs. We are warm. We have food to eat and clothes to wear. Many, many people do not. And, on top of all that--I get to stay home with my children. All day. Every day :) What a luxury. We need to live well in light of that and really keep perspective about things.
So there it is...something hard to figure out....but, hard isn't bad, just hard.
Happy Monday all :)
Edited to add: I also thought about titling this post "Forget Maui" (since we had planned to go to Maui in the fall, but likely won't since our lovely house will demand any extra cash we had in savings) but decided to go with the more spiritual title. Just in case :)
2 comments:
I always appreciate your honesty. Praying for everything to fall into place at just the right time. Praying for a peaceful transition. (Kinda hoping you might head this way... :) No, really...I know this is hard, luckily Eric and I were renters going into the buying market, but you have a beautiful home that is unbeliveably well kept. I would want to live in your home. (You're welcome to put that on the listing if you want :)
love you, friend. Let me know anyway I can help, or if you just need a couch to nurse on while you have a showing. I might be studying, but I have a TV and lots of kids toys.
Oh, Kim...I know exactly where you're coming from with this post. We aren't currently even considering putting our house on the market, but I have a lot of the same feelings as you. Our neighborhood also leaves a lot to be desired and our home value has also dropped significantly. Thankfully, we bought it as a HUD home, but we made the mistake of getting a second mortgage, so we also owe quite a bit more than the current market value. Regardless, I would LOVE to move out of this house.
But also like you, I thank God for our home. We really do have so much.
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