Exhale

My apologies to my regular blog readers, of whom there are more than I thought. Since my last post, I have been holding my breath, and thus have not known what or how to write.

I planned a trip to Ohio to visit my family for the month of June. As I planned that, we found that our contingency buyers had finally agreed upon a buyer for their home. Getting that house to the closing date at the end of June was a daily challenge and trust exercise, clear up until the last moment. Even the last moment ended up getting postponed on a day by day basis for almost a week, but on July 1 we finally received the call that all was officially completed. So we are officially no longer landowners in Utah. Or anywhere.

I am sure the details of that excruciating transaction would make for a good story, but I think the best way to summarize the process is that it has left me feeling very shy about buying another house. We now plan to stay on at the lovely resort house in the country for a couple more months to pay off some final bills, and to savor the joy of not having a mortgage payment for a small season. My hope is to be in our own place in time to host Thanksgiving dinner, but it's kinda nice not having a timetable at the moment.

My trip to Ohio was relaxing. The kids and I drove up the second week of June, and stayed until the 2nd of July. I took a break from writing, and instead played pinball on my computer for hours on end. During the days the kids got together with their cousins, and my mom, sister-in-law and I enjoyed spending many days together. Got to visit the Fiesta factory in West Virginia, to add to my dish collection now that I am about to have my own kitchen again.

My last weekend in Ohio actually consisted of a trip back to Detroit, to pick up Justin at the airport and go to his best friend's wedding. I left the kids with my parents. After three weeks of being apart, which included Father's Day; his birthday (involving driver's license renewal woes); a major meltdown at work which required him to work 80 hour weeks while I was gone; and him signing closing papers on the house in my absence, we really enjoyed the three day getaway.

After stopping back in Ohio to pick up the kids, we embarked on our three day drive back to Texas. I really enjoyed the chance to see the country, and to have our small family all together solo for a few days.

Speaking of family, this is my chance to find out who checks my blog even when I haven't been writing! I find it humorous the way God works, even when it sometimes seems painful at the same time.

On Memorial Day weekend, I ran out of patience for waiting for my life to move forward, and began to plan that trip to Ohio. At about the same time, I began to suspect there might be something else going on. Sure enough, on Memorial Day Monday we found out that we are expecting our third child. Of course this brought the tension of selling our house into full force, but no kidding it was the next day, Tuesday, that our agent called to say that our house could finally close by the end of June. What in the world?!

So that is why the month of June basically consisted of holding my breath as I saw the end of one chapter of my life finally come into view. And now we are into July, with the sale of our house behind us, the addition of a new family member in front of us, and just the right amount of time to get from point A to point B before it happens.

At night, Jesse usually prays some variation on this prayer: "Thank you for food, thank you for all the food we want. Thank you for trains, thank you for all the trains we want. Thank you for Jesus, thank you for all the Jesus we want. Amen." To which I would like to add today: "Thank you for blessings, thank you for all the blessings we want. Amen."