We are 2 days away from a new year and with a a new year comes new beginnings and our family is determined to make 2014 the best year ever!
This year (2013) has been a crazy year for us with lots of ups and downs.
The year started out with the stress of house hunting. We were living in a rental house that we had been in for 2 years and our hopes were to renew our lease for one more year but the owners were wanting to sale. The house was an old house and while it was fine as a rental it was not where we wanted to be long term so purchasing it was not an option. We set out on the great house hunt and prayed it would not take us long to find the "perfect house". We financially were not ready to buy so we knew we were going to have to find a rental. We really wanted to stay in the Byar Dowdy school zone which narrowed our choose way down. We started searching in February after talking to our landlords. We did not have to stress about hurrying to find a place since our lease wouldn't end till June. We did not have to stress about breaking our lease if we had to "jump" on a place since our landlords gave us the go-ahead to end our lease early if we needed to. We set our budget and started our search. We checked out a couple of places but nothing worked. We had set a budget of $900 and after looking at a few places decided that if we needed to we would raise the budget but we really didn't want to go above $1,000. I found an ad on Craigslist that sounded exactly like what we were wanting - 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, Byar Dowdy school zone. We set up a time to look at the house, the house was nice and it would work for us. We knew there were other people looking at the house (a family was leaving as we arrived). We were kind of bummed to hear that they had put a deposit down and if everything checked out the house would be theirs. We weren't in love with the house and were bummed because we did not want the house hunt to go on for weeks. Our prayers for a quick house hunt were answered the following day when we received an email from the owner of the house that we had looked at, letting us know that the people had changed their minds and did not want the house. We set up a time to look at the house again and meet with the owner to go over details. We fell in love with the house on the second walk-through as we looked closer at details. We filled out the application and gave our deposit and prayed we would be approved. Our prayers were answered again when we got the call that we were approved. We moved in at the end of March and have loved living here. The house is the perfect for us and our prayer now is that we can make this house our forever home.
A major down this year has been our finances. We are still digging out
of the hole that we got in when Richard was unemployed. We get
discouraged at times but we know God will provide.
A big up for us this year was finding a church home. We have visited a few congregations and while they have all had their pluses none of them felt like home. I was eating breakfast at school with Daniel one morning and one of his teachers (Ms. Marie) and I were talking and I mentioned that we were members of the Church of Christ. She said that she was a member of the Church of Christ and invited us to visit. We are so thankful for that random conversation and are happy to say that we have found our church home at Berea Church of Christ.
Richard was involved in a car accident on September the 13th. Our van was totaled, leaving us without a car and adding an additional expense to our already stretched budget. My mom & dad are letting us use one of their cars until we can get a car (save up a down payment). We are extremely thankful for the use of their car but we are ready to have our own car. We are pretty bummed about this but like our finances (lack there of) we know that God will provide.
Because of our lack of income, broken promises and lack of growth that Dell provided (or didn't provide) Richard made the decision to look for another job (a better job). He started his job search in August and had a few interviews that did not lead into jobs. He seemed to get disappointed after each interview and rejection. He got a call one day to be a reference for a co-worker and during that call the lady asked Richard if he was looking for a job. (The friend had mentioned that Richard was possibly looking for a job.) Richard said that he was and she did a brief phone interview with him and a few days later he had an in person interview. To make a long story short...Richard is now a working in the IT department at Captain D's and is loving his job.
We ended the year by saying goodbye to my 100 year old grandmother. Maw was a one-of-a-kind woman that let nothing stop her. I miss her and would love to still have her here but I know that she is right where she wants to be...in heaven.
We are thankful for this year, we are thankful for the ups and downs and we look forward to 2014 and all the ups and downs that it will bring.
