Selling our home

We are in the process of selling a home for the first time. We were so blessed that Toyota provided professional movers; we sure are U-Haul kind of people, but I don't know how we would have moved ourselves on such short notice and during the pregnancy. So, all of our stuff was out of the house by May 1, and we had a week afterward to finish fixing the place up before we started driving to Henderson on May 7.

We painted and did yard work and cleaned like crazy! Jan Magness came over (bearing donuts on more than one occasion!) to help us clean grout on the tile floors. You can see some of the results in the pictures below (note Jan's beautiful tile job in the bathroom!). The place looks so empty!



It is especially hard to move knowing we are leaving an exceptional neighborhood with so many dear friends. Numerous neighbors stopped by to bid us farewell, some even bringing gifts or food: Ruben and Mimi, Debra and Bob, Sandy and the girls, Elaine, Donna, Kevin and DJ, Kathy and Dave, Lokesh, Lynn and Ginger, Jennifer, Mark and Christine, Dean and Aleece, and Tatiana. The future owners sure don't know what a blessing they will be walking into! While working to get the house ready, we spent a lot of time praying for our home's new owners and for all of the neighbors we leave behind.

We are also thankful for the Lord's provision with the pregnancy during the moving process. I had a lot of nausea up until Week 16, when I suddenly felt so much better. Then, Steve received Toyota's job offer at Week 17 and we were moving out by Week 20. Now, in Week 24, nausea has come back a bit. The Lord was so good to give us the energy we needed exactly when we needed it!

During our last week in the house, we had a great big "indoor campout," sleeping on the air mattress in the living room (hey, we could pick whatever room we wanted!) and eating out of a cooler (we sold the fridge, as well as washer and dryer). The cats didn't know what to think of this, but they sure enjoyed playing around on the air mattress.

On our last day, we said "goodbye" to the house the same way we had said "hello" exactly six years earlier. The day we closed on the house in 2002, before we started moving in, we had lain spread-eagle on the living room floor, staring at the ceiling of our first new home, giving thanks to the Lord for the gift He had entrusted to us. On our last day in 2008, once everything was packed in the car, we lay down in the same spot and gave thanks to the Lord for six years of blessings: spiritual growth, a strengthened marriage, a church family, school graduation, job advancement, and now, even a new baby on the way.