4 hours ago
Sunday, February 21, 2016
The Shafferland Shuffle
* Last Sunday actually was Valentine's Day, and even though we had officially celebrated the day before, I refused to let the ACTUAL day go by unnoticed. So we did more pictures and enjoyed a leisurely day at home. I tried to make a festive dinner by doing the heart-shaped bacon idea I found on Pinterest {fail!!!} and heart shaped toast.
* Monday was a packing party here at our house, and I got so caught up in it that I had to hurry at the last minute to cook our dinner. I ended up having a total Lucille Ball moment and had messes EVERYWHERE. Counter, stove, cabinets {inside and out} and all over me. Good grief!!! Must keep better track of the clock next time! By the way, Braeya watched TV while I packed. She's spoiled.
* Tuesday, the packing continued, and while she has NO interest in the cat carrier yet, Braeya has much interest in reading the papers I use and climbing on the boxes. That child. Pretty exciting that evening...for our workout, I tried a pair of shorts I haven't really fit in since before our wedding!
* Wednesday I got to have lunch with some friends from my IWU days, and it was a GORGEOUS day to be out and about! I ran some errands while I was out and then came home to prepare for our final small group meeting. This adventure has been a blessing; I'm so glad we did it! We capped off our night with a pretty brutal workout and conked out!
* Thursday was {surprisingly} more packing, and I found all my old journals. What a fun thing to pack!! Braeya wasn't a huge help that day; she mostly just tried to help me eat my snack! {You can guess who won that battle. Meanwhile, Ryan spent the afternoon at the minute clinic, because he started coming down with something and there was just NO TIME. He was diagnosed with a sinus infection and came home and slept the entire evening! Bless his heart!
* Friday was STUNNING!!! It was warm and sunny, and Braeya stayed occupied for HOURS looking out the front door while I packed! Ryan and I went out to run errands that night and went to Starbucks for the first time in THREE WEEKS. I'd had such withdrawal!!!!
* Ryan was gone yesterday, but when he got home, he took me on a date! It was in the high 60's/low 70's here yesterday and we LOVED being out on the town without our coats! We went to dinner at Red Robin {where I learned I could love turkey burgers on lettuce wraps and bottomless broccoli} and had coffee at a bakery when we were done. It was a fun little night!
Saturday, February 20, 2016
The Saturday Six
As I've been telling you about our pending move this week, I mentioned that I have a planner/binder just for this occasion. I wanted to tell you where you can get it, in case you or anyone you know has a forthcoming move, because it has made my heart beat faster than any planner should. I found it on Pinterest initially, but you can buy it on Etsy. I almost passed it up, because it costs $8.00, and I typically refuse to pay for printables. But when I saw all that it offered, I realized it was absolutely worth the money, and the woman who designed it certainly deserves payment for her design efforts! What I love about it is that it's an instant download, you can choose the color you want {I chose gray because I didn't plan to use up our colored ink on packing stuff} and you can customize the pages on your computer! You can print them out blank and write on them, or you can type in the info and then print it. This planner has single-handedly revolutionized my moving extravaganza. {PS - the link over the words "all that it offered" takes you to the creator's blog post about the binder. The link over "you can buy it on Etsy" takes you to her shop.}
Two.
Three.
I love this little blog and actually interviewed Carmella when I worked at the station. Her posts inspire me to simplify my thoughts {which are, as you might imagine, currently quite chaotic where home and possessions are concerned}. This post reminds me of a truth I'm learning in fresh ways as I pack: it's important to keep the things that mean something to you. That's kind of our rule around here - if it doesn't fit our lives or house a significant memory, it's okay to let it go. When we realize we need something, because without it, something seems missing, we know it matters. Carmella says it better.
Four.
Here's why I no longer have to feel guilty about my power naps. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH how I love my power naps.
Five.
Jennifer Rothschild is an author and speaker, and if you're not familiar with her, let me just tell you: she is a delight. I appreciated her truthful insights in this post, offering ways to make sure you don't waste the upcoming years of your life!
Six.
One of the most surprising things {to me} about this book was its setting: 1842. I guess I had never given much thought to the Amish being active communities back in a time when everyone else in the world lived similarly {in regard to way of life itself}. I'm used to a world where the Amish live without the modern conveniences we enjoy, but in this setting, that would have been a much more level playing field since no one had cars or indoor plumbing or electricity. I typically think of the conflict between the Amish and English world revolving around the presence or absence of those kinds of amenities, but this story showed that conflict is conflict, and it was alive and well back then too, just with different manifestations.
The book chronicles the story of Hannah Yoder and her family, who live in Pennsylvania and have suffered much in the years leading up to our meeting them. Diphtheria claimed three of the children in the family and left soul-wounds that threatened to unravel the remaining members. Hannah is coming of age and wrestles with guilt from the deaths of her siblings, confusion over her feelings toward her lifelong friend Adam, who has converted to the Mennonite faith, and the attentions of a young Amish man who wants to make her his wife.
Hannah's family considers moving farther west, into Indiana, to start over, away from the influences of the world that seem to press in, and though she's sheltered from understanding it completely, Hannah finds herself exposed to the work of the underground railroad and the strange truths that humans are enslaved to other humans. So many choices face her and she wonders what will ultimately become of her if she chooses any of the paths before her.
I had never before thought of an Amish world and a slavery world colliding, so that portion of the storyline was incredibly interesting to me. I appreciated the tug of war within Hannah as she sought to be loyal to her parents, her upbringing, her heritage, her faith, and yet offer her own heart a chance at a promising future. I enjoyed seeing into her thoughts and finding recognizable commonalities from my own days in that age span when I wrestled with similar thoughts shown in different details.
I can say this without spoiling the end of the love triangle portion of the book: she didn't pick the man I rooted for, and that made me sad, but that's just a personal reflection and not any kind of reflection on Jan's writing. After all, isn't life like that sometimes? It doesn't turn out the way we hope, but there's still a beauty within it?
If you enjoy Amish fiction, I think you'd find this a good twist on a genre you love. Like I said, this brings in a time period and pieces of conflict I don't think are typical to Amish fiction as a whole. And since this is the first book in a new series, there's plenty of time to travel with new characters and see what unfolds for them!
* Thanks, Revell, for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. *
Friday, February 19, 2016
Gettin' This Party Started
I haven't forgotten Valentine's Day. I know a few of you said you wanted to hear more about our cooking class date {and we talked about it some on the podcast!} but I will bring you the full report with pictures on Monday!
Meanwhile, I wanted to show you one more thing about our current moving season! After we had the home inspection and knew that all was well regarding the structure of the home itself, I felt safe to go ahead and begin packing. Though we don't know when we will be moving, in all likelihood, it will be several weeks yet. I know it's not really necessary to begin packing, but I wanted to do a thorough job OF packing, and I wanted plenty of time to keep up with all my normal activities as well. Writing blogs every day, working out, keeping up with clean eating, prepping the podcast, being a wife...all those things take time, and I want to continue to excel at them in this meantime.
We had a stash of boxes already from the many times we've planned to move and haven't, so we had a head start on that. Ryan brought them in from the garage for me, and we got a bag of newspaper from my parents' house!
We used a gift card we got for Valentine's Day to purchase our starter kit of packing supplies. Yes, I'm doing a whole color coding system, and I am so excited about it!!
Can we go back to the one who is NOT as excited about all this?
This face pretty much sums up her thoughts on NOT being consulted before this major decision. And I fear we will pay a dear price at her hand {paws?} throughout the entire adventure. But majority rules, and 2/3 of us are ready to go!!
We have been trying to work with her on this idea and let her sort of nose around at her own pace and get used to boxes and the ripping sound of packing tape and all that. It's a slow beginning.
The first couple of boxes I packed were cause for great celebration. Starting to feel real!!
And from there it went, packing a little bit each day, working to pack away the things we use the least first:
One thing we can say for finding old TV boxes - they were bulky but the boxes are good for packing! :)
We have also started researching the best plan for the actual moving DAY for Braeya Jo Jo. This girl is traumatized to the max by car rides. Her saturation point on moving vehicles is less than one mile. We are moving farther than one mile. And while it would be easy {and maybe even likely!} to just put her in Ryan's car for the ride, since she likes him better anyway, I truly don't want her to be scarred for life by a move. So we're exploring kitty meds and all that. But in the meantime, we thought we would reintroduce her to the carrier. So we casually left it by all the moving boxes.
At first, she wouldn't even look at it. Literally turned her stubborn little nose in the other direction. But eventually she got closer.
Meanwhile, I keep packing. Bookshelves are almost completely packed now.
And while she may want little to do with the carrier, she is enjoying the jungle gym of boxes!
So that's where we are in the land of packing and organizing! It is fun {I've never truly moved in my life...moving out of a bedroom and into a house after college does not count} and I am excited to fully embrace this adventure!
Meanwhile, I wanted to show you one more thing about our current moving season! After we had the home inspection and knew that all was well regarding the structure of the home itself, I felt safe to go ahead and begin packing. Though we don't know when we will be moving, in all likelihood, it will be several weeks yet. I know it's not really necessary to begin packing, but I wanted to do a thorough job OF packing, and I wanted plenty of time to keep up with all my normal activities as well. Writing blogs every day, working out, keeping up with clean eating, prepping the podcast, being a wife...all those things take time, and I want to continue to excel at them in this meantime.
We had a stash of boxes already from the many times we've planned to move and haven't, so we had a head start on that. Ryan brought them in from the garage for me, and we got a bag of newspaper from my parents' house!
We have been trying to work with her on this idea and let her sort of nose around at her own pace and get used to boxes and the ripping sound of packing tape and all that. It's a slow beginning.
We have also started researching the best plan for the actual moving DAY for Braeya Jo Jo. This girl is traumatized to the max by car rides. Her saturation point on moving vehicles is less than one mile. We are moving farther than one mile. And while it would be easy {and maybe even likely!} to just put her in Ryan's car for the ride, since she likes him better anyway, I truly don't want her to be scarred for life by a move. So we're exploring kitty meds and all that. But in the meantime, we thought we would reintroduce her to the carrier. So we casually left it by all the moving boxes.
At first, she wouldn't even look at it. Literally turned her stubborn little nose in the other direction. But eventually she got closer.
Meanwhile, I keep packing. Bookshelves are almost completely packed now.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Home Inspection Day
A couple of days ago, I told you we signed a counter-offer on the darling house we found ourselves in love with, and we had to have an inspection done on the house before we could move forward with the next steps.
As most of you probably know, Ryan and I are both a little too OCD for our own good, and my part of it has manifested itself in the creation of a binder JUST for this adventure. My printer and three hole punch have become my best friend since we committed to this house, and preparing for inspection day brought both out in full force.
We had been told we were allowed {and encouraged} to be present for the inspection, and the homeowners would be gone. I made a thorough list of everything I wanted to take pictures of {because, hello!!! I took none on our first walk-through} and everything I wanted to measure. I knew that if everything worked out the way we hoped it would, and this house did become ours, this day would be my last chance to step foot inside before it became ours, so I was a future-homeowner-with-a-purpose.
The morning of the inspection, we woke up to snow and conditions that made the idea of travel somewhat {okay, entirely} terrifying for this girl. Ryan drove to work and told me he thought I could make it, but I should be careful. I sat in full-on sobs on the couch, visions of car accidents dancing in my head and trying to determine if getting to check off my list was worth the risk of driving over on questionable roads.
I decided to be a big girl and try, and with hands firmly gripping the wheel at 10 and 2, I set out for the new house. You guys, Indiana is so ridiculous when it comes to weather. I left home with 100% cloudy skies, snow, drifts blowing over the road, and all around nastiness. Halfway to Kokomo, the skies were 100% blue, not a flake of snow flew through the sky, the blowing went back to being invisible, and the day could be classified as splendid. IN TWENTY MINUTES!
I picked up Ryan at work, and we drove to the house. We knew the inspector should already be there and we were planning to be present just for the second half of the process. He met us at the door, let us inside, and nodded for Ryan to join him in the kitchen for their inspection chat. He nodded at me and said, "the homeowners are in there."
I looked "in there" and saw the two homeowners sitting on their couch looking wildly uncomfortable, as though they had been relegated to a time-out in their own home. I hugged my three ring binder to myself and swallowed initial feelings of disappointment in knowing I could not very well flit about the house taking pictures and measuring to check off all my items with them sitting right there.
Instead, I walked over with my hand extended, introduced myself, and decided to make friends.
And that's how it happened that for the next hour, I sat on the loveseat, opposite them on the couch, pausing now and then to pet the dog when she ran by, learning all the things they loved about the house and sharing our own dreams with them.
I won't relay the entire conversation with you, but I will tell you my favorite part:
The wife said to me, "We were so discouraged about this house selling. People came through and didn't like this or didn't like that, and we wondered if it was ever going to sell or if we were just going to miss out on the house we wanted. We wrote it down and put it in the prayer basket at church, and right after that, you made your offer."
I cannot tell you what a joy fell over my soul at the realization that we have the incredible privilege of being someone's answer to prayer. I mean seriously - have you ever thought about that before? When I think about our own house and how we're praying for someone to buy it, I think about how profoundly thankful we will be for that person. How we will always think of them as our answer to prayer. And even before we get that opportunity, we have the even greater opportunity to BE someone's answer to prayer.
That is a beautiful feeling.
Ryan got done talking with the inspectors and joined me while these homeowners shared their love for this house, the details of all they had done, and the excitement for their own home-to-come.
We left a little over an hour after we arrived, and not one thing in my three-ring-binder had been checked off. Although they willingly offered us freedom to walk through and do whatever we needed, I took exactly one picture {of a bathroom, no less} and measured two things, I think. But what I gained in exchange was so much greater.
A home is a personal place, isn't it? Not just a house, but a home. This couple has lovingly cared for and invested in this home for the last fourteen years. And their hard work showed. The inspectors found nothing alarming, and furthermore, they told Ryan they were impressed with how well it had been maintained.
We loved that about these owners. They had cared for their home with love and integrity because it was more than just a house to them, and their choice would turn around to bless us. It's the same way we have cared for our own house and hope to bless someone else with that choice we made. It was a pleasure to be on the receiving end of such a gift.
When we left the house that day, we left with joy, because again, this whole thing was about so much more than just buying a fun new house. It was about carrying on a legacy begun by someone else, long before we were in the picture.
It was about being an answer to prayer, which feels even better than receiving an answer to prayer.
Like I said. This journey has roots that extend far beyond buying a house.
As most of you probably know, Ryan and I are both a little too OCD for our own good, and my part of it has manifested itself in the creation of a binder JUST for this adventure. My printer and three hole punch have become my best friend since we committed to this house, and preparing for inspection day brought both out in full force.
We had been told we were allowed {and encouraged} to be present for the inspection, and the homeowners would be gone. I made a thorough list of everything I wanted to take pictures of {because, hello!!! I took none on our first walk-through} and everything I wanted to measure. I knew that if everything worked out the way we hoped it would, and this house did become ours, this day would be my last chance to step foot inside before it became ours, so I was a future-homeowner-with-a-purpose.
The morning of the inspection, we woke up to snow and conditions that made the idea of travel somewhat {okay, entirely} terrifying for this girl. Ryan drove to work and told me he thought I could make it, but I should be careful. I sat in full-on sobs on the couch, visions of car accidents dancing in my head and trying to determine if getting to check off my list was worth the risk of driving over on questionable roads.
I decided to be a big girl and try, and with hands firmly gripping the wheel at 10 and 2, I set out for the new house. You guys, Indiana is so ridiculous when it comes to weather. I left home with 100% cloudy skies, snow, drifts blowing over the road, and all around nastiness. Halfway to Kokomo, the skies were 100% blue, not a flake of snow flew through the sky, the blowing went back to being invisible, and the day could be classified as splendid. IN TWENTY MINUTES!
I picked up Ryan at work, and we drove to the house. We knew the inspector should already be there and we were planning to be present just for the second half of the process. He met us at the door, let us inside, and nodded for Ryan to join him in the kitchen for their inspection chat. He nodded at me and said, "the homeowners are in there."
I looked "in there" and saw the two homeowners sitting on their couch looking wildly uncomfortable, as though they had been relegated to a time-out in their own home. I hugged my three ring binder to myself and swallowed initial feelings of disappointment in knowing I could not very well flit about the house taking pictures and measuring to check off all my items with them sitting right there.
Instead, I walked over with my hand extended, introduced myself, and decided to make friends.
And that's how it happened that for the next hour, I sat on the loveseat, opposite them on the couch, pausing now and then to pet the dog when she ran by, learning all the things they loved about the house and sharing our own dreams with them.
I won't relay the entire conversation with you, but I will tell you my favorite part:
The wife said to me, "We were so discouraged about this house selling. People came through and didn't like this or didn't like that, and we wondered if it was ever going to sell or if we were just going to miss out on the house we wanted. We wrote it down and put it in the prayer basket at church, and right after that, you made your offer."
I cannot tell you what a joy fell over my soul at the realization that we have the incredible privilege of being someone's answer to prayer. I mean seriously - have you ever thought about that before? When I think about our own house and how we're praying for someone to buy it, I think about how profoundly thankful we will be for that person. How we will always think of them as our answer to prayer. And even before we get that opportunity, we have the even greater opportunity to BE someone's answer to prayer.
That is a beautiful feeling.
Ryan got done talking with the inspectors and joined me while these homeowners shared their love for this house, the details of all they had done, and the excitement for their own home-to-come.
We left a little over an hour after we arrived, and not one thing in my three-ring-binder had been checked off. Although they willingly offered us freedom to walk through and do whatever we needed, I took exactly one picture {of a bathroom, no less} and measured two things, I think. But what I gained in exchange was so much greater.
A home is a personal place, isn't it? Not just a house, but a home. This couple has lovingly cared for and invested in this home for the last fourteen years. And their hard work showed. The inspectors found nothing alarming, and furthermore, they told Ryan they were impressed with how well it had been maintained.
We loved that about these owners. They had cared for their home with love and integrity because it was more than just a house to them, and their choice would turn around to bless us. It's the same way we have cared for our own house and hope to bless someone else with that choice we made. It was a pleasure to be on the receiving end of such a gift.
When we left the house that day, we left with joy, because again, this whole thing was about so much more than just buying a fun new house. It was about carrying on a legacy begun by someone else, long before we were in the picture.
It was about being an answer to prayer, which feels even better than receiving an answer to prayer.
Like I said. This journey has roots that extend far beyond buying a house.
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
This Faith Stuff
I think the hardest thing about this house selling/house buying journey we're on is the truth I realized early on: this entire adventure doesn't have nearly as much to do with buying and selling houses as it does with testing, establishing, and growing our faith.
That ever happen in your life? Something that takes place is really just a vehicle used by God to accomplish a much deeper purpose? A much more eternal purpose?
That has been this adventure. I actually am not sure I can explain to you all that has transpired APART from the fun and the stress and the paperwork part of this season of our lives.
But I can tell you this: God has been on the move. He has been speaking, unmistakably, even if the words we hear don't include any version of "Here's a step-by-step timeline of what's next for you." Some examples of what we HAVE heard through words we've read include:
"God knows what's next for you. He is already preparing your heart and mind. He is clearing the path. He will show you the way." - Liz Curtis Higgs
"Sometimes when we get overwhelmed, we forget how big God is." - A.W. Tozer
"The giant in front of you is never bigger than the God who lives in you." - Christine Caine
"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on You! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock." - Isaiah 26:3-4
There are many more, but that's just a sampling of the things chronicled in the journal to carry us through this part of the journey.
I wanted to share this one with you too - just because it gave me goose bumps! Ryan had called his mom to share with her about all our news, and as they talked on the phone, she glanced across the room and noticed her little "faith" picture sitting nearby. She grabbed her camera to take a picture, and when she looked at the picture on the computer later, she noticed the shadow of the cross on it.
THIS.
These are the things that have sustained us in the waiting.
And you know what else? We have grown together, unifying in our faith and trust in incredible ways over the past couple of weeks. Who would have known that this would be such a bonding agent? It's not the first hard season we've gone through, but there's something about it that has created growth like we've never seen.
There's also a peace we can't explain. Even though there is so much that is absolutely unknown for us {our own real life "to-be-continued"} - there is this crazy peace that has settled over us. An excitement to see HOW God plans to resolve this. A peace that an answer is out there, even though we can't see it. A comfort that our faith really has grown, because I can remember a time not all that long ago when this very thing would have utterly undone me. Undone both of us, actually.
We are excited. Excited for something good and fun and joyous to come. Excited to see how God answers the deep need of our house to sell and the deeper need of our heart to trust Him to work a miracle.
Sure, there are moments of panic. Fortunately they tend not to hit us both at once, so we yoke up together and carry one another along in the moments of doubt until we've both found sure footing again.
Sure, there are moments of jealousy when we read about friends who are in a similar situation but have had no hiccups in selling their homes. That's hard to read about. But in those moments, we try to rejoice with them in their blessing, and in so doing, turn our hurt into praise for what God has yet to do for us.
And tomorrow, I am going to tell you the story of home inspection day. Another day when God showed up.
That ever happen in your life? Something that takes place is really just a vehicle used by God to accomplish a much deeper purpose? A much more eternal purpose?
That has been this adventure. I actually am not sure I can explain to you all that has transpired APART from the fun and the stress and the paperwork part of this season of our lives.
But I can tell you this: God has been on the move. He has been speaking, unmistakably, even if the words we hear don't include any version of "Here's a step-by-step timeline of what's next for you." Some examples of what we HAVE heard through words we've read include:
"God knows what's next for you. He is already preparing your heart and mind. He is clearing the path. He will show you the way." - Liz Curtis Higgs
"Sometimes when we get overwhelmed, we forget how big God is." - A.W. Tozer
"The giant in front of you is never bigger than the God who lives in you." - Christine Caine
"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on You! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock." - Isaiah 26:3-4
There are many more, but that's just a sampling of the things chronicled in the journal to carry us through this part of the journey.
I wanted to share this one with you too - just because it gave me goose bumps! Ryan had called his mom to share with her about all our news, and as they talked on the phone, she glanced across the room and noticed her little "faith" picture sitting nearby. She grabbed her camera to take a picture, and when she looked at the picture on the computer later, she noticed the shadow of the cross on it.
THIS.
And you know what else? We have grown together, unifying in our faith and trust in incredible ways over the past couple of weeks. Who would have known that this would be such a bonding agent? It's not the first hard season we've gone through, but there's something about it that has created growth like we've never seen.
There's also a peace we can't explain. Even though there is so much that is absolutely unknown for us {our own real life "to-be-continued"} - there is this crazy peace that has settled over us. An excitement to see HOW God plans to resolve this. A peace that an answer is out there, even though we can't see it. A comfort that our faith really has grown, because I can remember a time not all that long ago when this very thing would have utterly undone me. Undone both of us, actually.
We are excited. Excited for something good and fun and joyous to come. Excited to see how God answers the deep need of our house to sell and the deeper need of our heart to trust Him to work a miracle.
Sure, there are moments of panic. Fortunately they tend not to hit us both at once, so we yoke up together and carry one another along in the moments of doubt until we've both found sure footing again.
Sure, there are moments of jealousy when we read about friends who are in a similar situation but have had no hiccups in selling their homes. That's hard to read about. But in those moments, we try to rejoice with them in their blessing, and in so doing, turn our hurt into praise for what God has yet to do for us.
And tomorrow, I am going to tell you the story of home inspection day. Another day when God showed up.
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
The Snowball Effect
Podcast Day! And yes, we're talking about the house {some} and our non-bungee-jumping Valentine's Date! But never fear...the blog story continues below!!
Despite my begging to the contrary, you hate me, don't you? All the to be continued-ing? Like I said yesterday, it's how the story is going for us, too, and I assure you that even as you read this today, we do not know the details of how it all will end. So parts of it are as much a mystery to me as they are to you!!
Okay. So I told you we decided we loved this darling little house we'd walked through and yet we had no clue if anyone else also loved it like we did.
On our monthiversary, we prayed. A serious, heads-bowed, on-our-knees kind of prayer. The kind of hit-the-floor prayer that we hoped demonstrated the utter seriousness of our hearts. As we prayed, Ryan felt overwhelmed with a nudge to get paperwork started to make this a reality. And when we stood up from our hit-the-floor prayer, he did just that very thing.
Whoa.
The next day, he called the listing agent of the house we loved and thanked her personally for sending the text of the kitchen table and conveyed to her that we had fallen hard and fast for this house and were putting paperwork in motion to make it ours. He hung up the phone, still anxious in not knowing if we were up against anyone else, but comforted that he had done what he could to make our case known. {The listing agent later told Cathy that in all her years of real estate, no buyer has ever called to offer personal thanks and hope and that Ryan's call was extremely impressive to her.}
While Ryan got busy on more paperwork for our future, I met with Cathy to once again list our house for sale. It was both exciting and defeating to have this meeting with her. I wonder sometimes if all our neighbors have some sort of betting pool on when we're going to list our house AGAIN and how long it will take for us to give up after it doesn't sell. Five years of signs flying in and out of the yard has to be comical to watch - unless, of course, the signs are in YOUR yard.
When Cathy came with all the paperwork, her assistant came to take pictures. I shook her hand and Cathy mentioned in passing that this home had been my grandparents' house. The woman asked me who my grandparents were, and when I told her their names {keep in mind they both passed away when I was in high school}, her jaw dropped clear to the floor. "I worked for your Grandma" she started, and I finished for her - "at the bakery, right?"
Goose bumps.
With all our paperwork in place to list our house and to be ready to buy a new one, Ryan and I asked Cathy if we could make a contingent offer on the house we loved. She came back with good news and bad news. The good news was, we could definitely make an offer. The bad news was, the people who owned the house had an offer of their own in on THEIR new dream home. And if they didn't close by a certain date, they risked losing that house. They were willing to meet us in the middle as much as they could by delaying the closing of the house they were selling/we were buying to the last possible day before they HAD to close if it would help us to have more time to sell our house.
And so it was that on Thursday, February 4th, one week after we walked through the house we never planned to love, we signed an offer for that very home.
Within about twelve hours, they counter-offered and just past quittin' time on Friday, we sat in Cathy's office signing the counter-offer.
We went home to eat clean-eating-approved Chinese food and stared at each other.
Did we just buy a house?
And more importantly - we needed a straight-up miracle where our own home was concerned. It didn't matter that the house hadn't sold in five years. We needed it to sell on the double.
Back when we still owned Ryan's Greentown house, we made a solemn vow that we would never again own two homes. And we thought long and hard about that - and more than mere thinking - we prayed long and hard about that before we signed the offer. But we knew in our souls that this wasn't just impulsive Shafferness we were participating in. Based on the specific prayers we had prayed over the last week or so, God had unmistakably opened doors we did not ever expect to see open. Moving forward was the right choice, and we knew it in our hearts. We also knew we were about to walk into the biggest faith challenge we'd seen yet in our marriage.
And it scared us to death.
To be continued...and since I know you're mad about that, I'll just ask that every time you get the urge to yell at me, pray for our house to sell instead, okay?? That should garner a lot of prayer!! :)
Despite my begging to the contrary, you hate me, don't you? All the to be continued-ing? Like I said yesterday, it's how the story is going for us, too, and I assure you that even as you read this today, we do not know the details of how it all will end. So parts of it are as much a mystery to me as they are to you!!
Okay. So I told you we decided we loved this darling little house we'd walked through and yet we had no clue if anyone else also loved it like we did.
On our monthiversary, we prayed. A serious, heads-bowed, on-our-knees kind of prayer. The kind of hit-the-floor prayer that we hoped demonstrated the utter seriousness of our hearts. As we prayed, Ryan felt overwhelmed with a nudge to get paperwork started to make this a reality. And when we stood up from our hit-the-floor prayer, he did just that very thing.
Whoa.
The next day, he called the listing agent of the house we loved and thanked her personally for sending the text of the kitchen table and conveyed to her that we had fallen hard and fast for this house and were putting paperwork in motion to make it ours. He hung up the phone, still anxious in not knowing if we were up against anyone else, but comforted that he had done what he could to make our case known. {The listing agent later told Cathy that in all her years of real estate, no buyer has ever called to offer personal thanks and hope and that Ryan's call was extremely impressive to her.}
While Ryan got busy on more paperwork for our future, I met with Cathy to once again list our house for sale. It was both exciting and defeating to have this meeting with her. I wonder sometimes if all our neighbors have some sort of betting pool on when we're going to list our house AGAIN and how long it will take for us to give up after it doesn't sell. Five years of signs flying in and out of the yard has to be comical to watch - unless, of course, the signs are in YOUR yard.
When Cathy came with all the paperwork, her assistant came to take pictures. I shook her hand and Cathy mentioned in passing that this home had been my grandparents' house. The woman asked me who my grandparents were, and when I told her their names {keep in mind they both passed away when I was in high school}, her jaw dropped clear to the floor. "I worked for your Grandma" she started, and I finished for her - "at the bakery, right?"
Goose bumps.
With all our paperwork in place to list our house and to be ready to buy a new one, Ryan and I asked Cathy if we could make a contingent offer on the house we loved. She came back with good news and bad news. The good news was, we could definitely make an offer. The bad news was, the people who owned the house had an offer of their own in on THEIR new dream home. And if they didn't close by a certain date, they risked losing that house. They were willing to meet us in the middle as much as they could by delaying the closing of the house they were selling/we were buying to the last possible day before they HAD to close if it would help us to have more time to sell our house.
And so it was that on Thursday, February 4th, one week after we walked through the house we never planned to love, we signed an offer for that very home.
Within about twelve hours, they counter-offered and just past quittin' time on Friday, we sat in Cathy's office signing the counter-offer.
We went home to eat clean-eating-approved Chinese food and stared at each other.
Did we just buy a house?
And more importantly - we needed a straight-up miracle where our own home was concerned. It didn't matter that the house hadn't sold in five years. We needed it to sell on the double.
Back when we still owned Ryan's Greentown house, we made a solemn vow that we would never again own two homes. And we thought long and hard about that - and more than mere thinking - we prayed long and hard about that before we signed the offer. But we knew in our souls that this wasn't just impulsive Shafferness we were participating in. Based on the specific prayers we had prayed over the last week or so, God had unmistakably opened doors we did not ever expect to see open. Moving forward was the right choice, and we knew it in our hearts. We also knew we were about to walk into the biggest faith challenge we'd seen yet in our marriage.
And it scared us to death.
To be continued...and since I know you're mad about that, I'll just ask that every time you get the urge to yell at me, pray for our house to sell instead, okay?? That should garner a lot of prayer!! :)
Monday, February 15, 2016
Awakenings
I thought about telling you about Valentine's Day, but it just seemed mean to leave you hanging on the house adventure story, so we'll save Valentine's Day for another day. Besides, I think about 90% of you who are regular readers are just a hair short of chucking a heavy object at me, and I don't want to make you any more angry than you already are!!!
If you are behind on blogs and have no idea what I'm talking about, you'll want to go back and read the posts from last week that chronicle the beginning of this story. Part one, part two, and part three can be read by clicking on each link.
So when I left you last Friday, we were waiting to see a second house, similar to the one we toured a few days before, so we could decide which one we liked better. It actually turned out to be such a perfect timing thing, because our appointment to see house #2 fell on our 38th monthiversary. I could think of nothing more romantic than spending extra time together that day, strolling through our potential future home. Ryan had driven by the house a couple of times in the interim and reported that it looked wonderful from the outside, and we'd looked at houses in that neighborhood before, so we knew we liked that much, at least.
The day before our monthiversary, Cathy emailed. "You're not going to believe this," she said, "but that house we're supposed to see tomorrow sold today."
Actually, I can totally believe that. This is us, remember? Good luck charm for houses everywhere? I stared at her words on the screen and had two thoughts. 1. Why do these sellers get ALL THE LUCK? 2. I'm not mad that the house sold. Not even a little bit.
I texted Ryan, who was at work. "The second house sold, and I'm not even mad. Are you?"
He answered immediately. "No. I'm not. I want the house we saw."
We knew in that very instant that the one we'd been through was home. There was no need to see another house because we were already in love. We knew it was ludicrous in the eyes of many to not look at a thousand houses before picking one, but this tends to be the way life works for us. We got married quickly because we just knew. I picked out my wedding dress in ten minutes because I just knew. When we know, we know. And we knew.
Unfortunately knowing we love a house and getting said house are not necessarily a natural pairing. We knew the house we loved had just had an open house before we toured it. What if someone else was living our same story, but they got there first? What if the house already had an offer and we didn't know? {We've learned that despite realtor.com's tag line of being updated in real time every fifteen minutes, a house might be pending or sold and still be sitting there looking all up for grabs online.}
So even that day - February 1 - Ryan and I paced and prayed from our respective locations. I stewed and wondered if the people living in that house even remotely thought we might be interested.
And that's when it happened.
As I paced and stewed, I got a text from Cathy. Remember how I told you the only item of discussion when we toured the house was whether or not our table would fit in the kitchen? And how I insisted I could make it work in the great room? Well apparently in her remarks back to the listing agent, Cathy had relayed some or all of that conversation, because the homeowners proceeded to put all the leaves in their kitchen table, gathered up all the chairs and put them around the table, and sent a photo to their Realtor to show how a bigger table would, in fact, fit in the kitchen. She sent it to Cathy, who forwarded it to me.
This may not be a big deal to you, but it made me cry. I cried for-real tears, because it showed me that these people were kind and invested in the sale of their home. The same sort of kind and invested that Ryan and I would be in the sale of our own home. This would be the very kind of thing Ryan would do for someone potentially interested in our place.
Remember how I said I scratched a home from our list because the seller was being picky about how clean it was when we wanted to see it? I didn't want to enter a legal contract with her because if she was that picky over a showing, I couldn't imagine doing business with her? Well the same was true {in the most opposite way} of this text. If these people were willing to go the extra mile over a kitchen table, they were exactly the kind of people we wanted to do business with. How fortunate for us that they lived in this house. It gave us a lot of hope about the kind of people they are and the kind of care and investment they'd put toward the house and toward us, we hoped.
And so it was that on our 38th monthivesary, we both declared we were in love with that darling little house we'd walked through just five days earlier. In the span of five days, we'd gone from casually walking through to being down on our knees, clutching that kitchen table photograph, asking God if this was the way we should go. And hoping beyond hope He would say yes.
To be continued...
{And before you send me hate mail, let me just remind you that we hate "to be continued" as much as you do, but this is actually HOW the story is going in our real time!! Welcome to our life!!}
If you are behind on blogs and have no idea what I'm talking about, you'll want to go back and read the posts from last week that chronicle the beginning of this story. Part one, part two, and part three can be read by clicking on each link.
So when I left you last Friday, we were waiting to see a second house, similar to the one we toured a few days before, so we could decide which one we liked better. It actually turned out to be such a perfect timing thing, because our appointment to see house #2 fell on our 38th monthiversary. I could think of nothing more romantic than spending extra time together that day, strolling through our potential future home. Ryan had driven by the house a couple of times in the interim and reported that it looked wonderful from the outside, and we'd looked at houses in that neighborhood before, so we knew we liked that much, at least.
The day before our monthiversary, Cathy emailed. "You're not going to believe this," she said, "but that house we're supposed to see tomorrow sold today."
Actually, I can totally believe that. This is us, remember? Good luck charm for houses everywhere? I stared at her words on the screen and had two thoughts. 1. Why do these sellers get ALL THE LUCK? 2. I'm not mad that the house sold. Not even a little bit.
I texted Ryan, who was at work. "The second house sold, and I'm not even mad. Are you?"
He answered immediately. "No. I'm not. I want the house we saw."
We knew in that very instant that the one we'd been through was home. There was no need to see another house because we were already in love. We knew it was ludicrous in the eyes of many to not look at a thousand houses before picking one, but this tends to be the way life works for us. We got married quickly because we just knew. I picked out my wedding dress in ten minutes because I just knew. When we know, we know. And we knew.
Unfortunately knowing we love a house and getting said house are not necessarily a natural pairing. We knew the house we loved had just had an open house before we toured it. What if someone else was living our same story, but they got there first? What if the house already had an offer and we didn't know? {We've learned that despite realtor.com's tag line of being updated in real time every fifteen minutes, a house might be pending or sold and still be sitting there looking all up for grabs online.}
So even that day - February 1 - Ryan and I paced and prayed from our respective locations. I stewed and wondered if the people living in that house even remotely thought we might be interested.
And that's when it happened.
As I paced and stewed, I got a text from Cathy. Remember how I told you the only item of discussion when we toured the house was whether or not our table would fit in the kitchen? And how I insisted I could make it work in the great room? Well apparently in her remarks back to the listing agent, Cathy had relayed some or all of that conversation, because the homeowners proceeded to put all the leaves in their kitchen table, gathered up all the chairs and put them around the table, and sent a photo to their Realtor to show how a bigger table would, in fact, fit in the kitchen. She sent it to Cathy, who forwarded it to me.
This may not be a big deal to you, but it made me cry. I cried for-real tears, because it showed me that these people were kind and invested in the sale of their home. The same sort of kind and invested that Ryan and I would be in the sale of our own home. This would be the very kind of thing Ryan would do for someone potentially interested in our place.
Remember how I said I scratched a home from our list because the seller was being picky about how clean it was when we wanted to see it? I didn't want to enter a legal contract with her because if she was that picky over a showing, I couldn't imagine doing business with her? Well the same was true {in the most opposite way} of this text. If these people were willing to go the extra mile over a kitchen table, they were exactly the kind of people we wanted to do business with. How fortunate for us that they lived in this house. It gave us a lot of hope about the kind of people they are and the kind of care and investment they'd put toward the house and toward us, we hoped.
And so it was that on our 38th monthivesary, we both declared we were in love with that darling little house we'd walked through just five days earlier. In the span of five days, we'd gone from casually walking through to being down on our knees, clutching that kitchen table photograph, asking God if this was the way we should go. And hoping beyond hope He would say yes.
To be continued...
{And before you send me hate mail, let me just remind you that we hate "to be continued" as much as you do, but this is actually HOW the story is going in our real time!! Welcome to our life!!}
Sunday, February 14, 2016
The Shafferland Shuffle
Happy Valentine's Day! Whether or not you have a significant other in your life today, we want you to know you're loved!!!
* Last Sunday, Ryan and I worked the cafe at church - and it continues to make me happy to be around so many coffee beans!! What a great work assignment. :) As you may also have heard, last Sunday was the Super Bowl!!! Some friends of ours came over to watch part of the game with us, and I have to say - for being a non-football girl, I thoroughly enjoyed that game. I appreciated the non-dramatic nature of it and of course, Peyton's fantastic evening!
* Monday morning, I spent some time getting organized for the week. Because of all these house adventures, I am now a two-planner girl, and it gets confusing! Ryan got a treat from one of his patients - they are so good to bring him food! {Because I don't feed him, right?} We were working out Monday night when we got a call from an out-of-town friend that his daughter had been in a car accident not far from our house. We went to get her and took her to the hospital {where her friend had been taken} and stayed with her until her dad could get into town. We seem to be seeing a lot of the ER lately!!!
* Tuesday was cold and blustery here, and it would have been a GREAT day to stay curled up under blankets, but I had agreed to serve as a volunteer receptionist at the church while all the office staff went to a staff meeting. I even had my own name tag! Looks like Braeya's little friend came for a visit that day - too bad she was busy SLEEPING all day! And that night, Ryan set up camp in the office to do some serious organizing. He got it done, too!
* Wednesday I had an unexpected lunch date with my parents, so that was fun {and thanks for the free lunch, Mom!!}. I stopped by their house to pick up some newspaper, because guess who has the itch to START PACKING!?!?!!?!? Oh yes! That's me!!! I even talked Ryan into shopping for supplies for my whole color coding system I've devised {with the help of Pinterest, of course}.
* Thursday I actually packed my first boxes, which was exciting and scary all at the same time! Braeya is NOT too sure about this adventure, but I keep welcoming her into the packing space, hoping she will get the hang of it eventually. And all things go better and faster when looking at beautiful scenery, right? Enter the gorgeous flowers Ryan gave me as an early Valentine's Day gift!
* Friday I kept packing. I don't NEED to pack, but it's like a sickness. Once I start, I can't stop! The bookshelves took the brunt of Friday! When Ryan got home from work, we went to meet some of his co-workers for dinner, and although it had been cloudy and snowy all day, we got to enjoy a beautiful sunset!!
* Yesterday was our big mystery date! If you heard the podcast this week, you know that Ryan planned a date for me but he didn't tell me what it was going to be! I didn't know until we were actually in the car and on our way! He signed us up for a Romance in Italy cooking class! I can't wait to tell you more about that {but yes, I'll wait until I'm done being mean with all the to-be-continueds.} But let the record show, it was a spectacular Valentine's Day gift!
* Last Sunday, Ryan and I worked the cafe at church - and it continues to make me happy to be around so many coffee beans!! What a great work assignment. :) As you may also have heard, last Sunday was the Super Bowl!!! Some friends of ours came over to watch part of the game with us, and I have to say - for being a non-football girl, I thoroughly enjoyed that game. I appreciated the non-dramatic nature of it and of course, Peyton's fantastic evening!
Saturday, February 13, 2016
The Saturday Six
One.
Two.
Ack!! How adorable are these labels for organizing?????
Three.
Four.
Five.
My friend Kristin wrote this post, and while I am not a sci-fi kind of girl, I can't tell you how much I needed these words. {What I'm saying is even if sci-fi mystifies you like it does me, read this post. It won't confuse you.} Broken...but fixable. I love it.
Six.
I hesitate to say this just this way, because if Stephanie happens upon my blog and looks around, she might wildly disagree with these words, but her writing reminded me of my own writing. She's a lover of story, she's a lover of finding God in the moments of every day, and that's what you'll find in her book. So if you like what you read here, the serious and the deep and the funny, you'll like her book. It's got the same kind of feel.
If you're single, {HELLO, my single friends!!} this book is especially for you. Stephanie chronicles her own life journey through a series of blind dates and why they didn't work out, but how and why she learned pivotal life lessons as a result of each failed date. If you need and want to know you are not alone in all the feelings you have about being single when you long to be married, she'll make you giggle while reminding you that you are indeed not alone.
If you're NOT single, this book still has something for you. As you know, Ryan and I are praying and waiting for the sale of our home, and I'm finding many parallels between our current stage of waiting and the lessons that descend upon the life of a girl waiting for a husband. And if you're waiting for anything else - a job, a baby, your restored health - I can promise there are lessons and truths in these pages that you need to hear.
I sat with my jaw dropped as I read, floored at how many things Stephanie and I had in common. Not just the fact that we were both single into our thirties before getting married, but crazy little details, too. We've both had strong God-planted life themes of placing literal stones of remembrance in our lives to mark the work of God. We've both been visited {and subsequently utterly freaked out by} unmarked vehicles claiming to be vacuum sales people. We both resisted online dating for the same reasons. We both purchased our first home while single and mourned doing such a grown-up thing alone. We both found blind-dating to be dreadful and hopeful at the same time. We both spent Tuesdays in deep prayer. I've never before felt like I was reading my own story as I did in this book.
The book is an easy read with short chapters that tell captivating snippets of story, and not every story is about singleness. Many are just about life and the lessons she learned while weaving her way through the singleness and prayers for later. This is one I'll be keeping on my shelf and referring to and recommending often. Congratulations, Stephanie, on a wonderful, thoughtful, enjoyable, thought-provoking read!
* Thanks, Tyndale, for publishing this book and for sending a copy my way in exchange for an honest review. *
Friday, February 12, 2016
Next Steps
When Ryan read yesterday's post, and he saw that it ended with "to be continued," he said to me "Well that's mean. You're going to make them wait all weekend for more?"
I said, "Well, not really since I can write more on Friday." And that is how I burst his bubble that it was not already Friday. That is always disappointing, isn't it? When you think you're closer to the weekend than you are?
So here I am, back to tell you a bit more of our house adventures. As you read yesterday, we fell in love with a house, which sold out from underneath us, but the good news in all of it was that we realized we were both ready to move right now {or as close to "right now" as God would allow} and we had settled on a location - anywhere closer to Ryan's work.
Even though we found nothing immediately online that zinged us, particularly, Ryan did some in-person driving around town in neighborhoods he liked to look at some houses. He came home early in the last week of January and said there was a house that intrigued him enough that he thought it was worth an in-person look. I asked for the address so I could mentally conjure up the square footage, floor plan, and other details I was sure I'd memorized from the online listing. Because as I said yesterday, if it's online, I'd read it, and I'd probably memorized it.
When I refreshed my memory on this particular house, I was quite surprised he wanted to see it. There were a handful of things about it that had made me strike it from the list for him, because I knew he wouldn't love it. And while I hadn't hated it online, it hadn't really zinged me. But if he was willing to go see it, we would go. And since the agent and I would be traveling all the way over to look, it seemed only right and good to pick out another house to see to make the trip worth it. So I picked one out that was at the top of my own list, and we made plans to see them both on January 28th.
I was actually fairly certain the one Ryan wanted to see would be sold already, because the owners had just had an open house a few days before. The house had been on the market for a long time and it seemed about right {for us} that we would finally discover it and it would sell - to someone else. Right?
So when Cathy {my real estate buddy} called me, I figured she would say the house Ryan wanted to see was sold. Surprisingly, she did not say that, and in fact, she said it was MY pick we couldn't go see. Not because it had sold, but because the owner said she couldn't get it cleaned to her specifications in the time left {which was over a day}. I told Cathy to just go ahead and strike it from the list. If the owners were going to be that picky about a showing, I had no desire to enter into legal, binding contracts with them. And that was the end of that house for us.
January 28th was a lovely day, and right before Cathy and I left for Kokomo, I found a house online that was almost identical to the one we were about to see, but it was in a little different neighborhood and had some features I thought Ryan would really like that the one we were about to see did not have. It had just come up for sale that day, so it was too late for us to schedule a showing on such short notice, but when I got in Cathy's car, I told her I knew we needed to see it as soon as we could. And off we went.
When I went house hunting in Fort Wayne, years ago, I took pictures of every house, every room, every everything. I documented every single move.
This house, I decided, was a just-for-fun look. I knew Ryan would see in person what I saw online, and he would not want it. So I would not fall in love with it. I would not bother to take pictures. I would stroll through, enjoy, and make the most of a mid-day date with my husband.
We pulled up in front of the house, walked up to the door, and when I stepped on the porch, my armor cracked.
Because, you guys, that porch. I wanted to sit right down and have a cup of coffee and enjoy the view. Never mind that it was January 28th and cold outside. The house had me at the porch.
I never did take a picture that day. But I wandered through every room of that house multiple times, closed my eyes, and those walls felt like home.
I looked for things to hate. Couldn't find 'em. I found a few things to put my touch on, but nothing to hate. Even the things that my paper list said I should hate...I didn't hate.
You know how some houses smell funny? Not like they smell bad, but they just smell like, well, whoever lives there. Houses have the distinct aroma of the people who live there. This house smelled like home. The owners had a dog: we saw her, and that's the only reason we knew she lived there, because we sure didn't smell her!
You know how some houses just feel awkward? This one felt like our home that someone had been taking care of for us.
I looked for dings in the paint on the wall and found none. Ryan peeked at all the technical stuff looking for shoddy workmanship and found none.
The only thing we spent time debating was where to put our massive dining room table. The kitchen in this house had a small table in it, and we weren't sure we could fit ours in that room. I paced around the big living room, insistent that I could make it work as a living/dining space.
And you guys? The house had a pirogi.
We left that day without a single picture on our camera, but wildly confused in spirit. This was not supposed to be a house we loved. This was supposed to just be a fun visit. Our warm-up to house hunting.
I told Ryan we would know better how we felt about it after we saw the other house. And I was sure he'd like the other house better. The problem was, I wasn't sure I'd like the other house better. Not anymore.
To be continued....
I said, "Well, not really since I can write more on Friday." And that is how I burst his bubble that it was not already Friday. That is always disappointing, isn't it? When you think you're closer to the weekend than you are?
So here I am, back to tell you a bit more of our house adventures. As you read yesterday, we fell in love with a house, which sold out from underneath us, but the good news in all of it was that we realized we were both ready to move right now {or as close to "right now" as God would allow} and we had settled on a location - anywhere closer to Ryan's work.
Even though we found nothing immediately online that zinged us, particularly, Ryan did some in-person driving around town in neighborhoods he liked to look at some houses. He came home early in the last week of January and said there was a house that intrigued him enough that he thought it was worth an in-person look. I asked for the address so I could mentally conjure up the square footage, floor plan, and other details I was sure I'd memorized from the online listing. Because as I said yesterday, if it's online, I'd read it, and I'd probably memorized it.
When I refreshed my memory on this particular house, I was quite surprised he wanted to see it. There were a handful of things about it that had made me strike it from the list for him, because I knew he wouldn't love it. And while I hadn't hated it online, it hadn't really zinged me. But if he was willing to go see it, we would go. And since the agent and I would be traveling all the way over to look, it seemed only right and good to pick out another house to see to make the trip worth it. So I picked one out that was at the top of my own list, and we made plans to see them both on January 28th.
I was actually fairly certain the one Ryan wanted to see would be sold already, because the owners had just had an open house a few days before. The house had been on the market for a long time and it seemed about right {for us} that we would finally discover it and it would sell - to someone else. Right?
So when Cathy {my real estate buddy} called me, I figured she would say the house Ryan wanted to see was sold. Surprisingly, she did not say that, and in fact, she said it was MY pick we couldn't go see. Not because it had sold, but because the owner said she couldn't get it cleaned to her specifications in the time left {which was over a day}. I told Cathy to just go ahead and strike it from the list. If the owners were going to be that picky about a showing, I had no desire to enter into legal, binding contracts with them. And that was the end of that house for us.
January 28th was a lovely day, and right before Cathy and I left for Kokomo, I found a house online that was almost identical to the one we were about to see, but it was in a little different neighborhood and had some features I thought Ryan would really like that the one we were about to see did not have. It had just come up for sale that day, so it was too late for us to schedule a showing on such short notice, but when I got in Cathy's car, I told her I knew we needed to see it as soon as we could. And off we went.
When I went house hunting in Fort Wayne, years ago, I took pictures of every house, every room, every everything. I documented every single move.
This house, I decided, was a just-for-fun look. I knew Ryan would see in person what I saw online, and he would not want it. So I would not fall in love with it. I would not bother to take pictures. I would stroll through, enjoy, and make the most of a mid-day date with my husband.
We pulled up in front of the house, walked up to the door, and when I stepped on the porch, my armor cracked.
Because, you guys, that porch. I wanted to sit right down and have a cup of coffee and enjoy the view. Never mind that it was January 28th and cold outside. The house had me at the porch.
I never did take a picture that day. But I wandered through every room of that house multiple times, closed my eyes, and those walls felt like home.
I looked for things to hate. Couldn't find 'em. I found a few things to put my touch on, but nothing to hate. Even the things that my paper list said I should hate...I didn't hate.
You know how some houses smell funny? Not like they smell bad, but they just smell like, well, whoever lives there. Houses have the distinct aroma of the people who live there. This house smelled like home. The owners had a dog: we saw her, and that's the only reason we knew she lived there, because we sure didn't smell her!
You know how some houses just feel awkward? This one felt like our home that someone had been taking care of for us.
I looked for dings in the paint on the wall and found none. Ryan peeked at all the technical stuff looking for shoddy workmanship and found none.
The only thing we spent time debating was where to put our massive dining room table. The kitchen in this house had a small table in it, and we weren't sure we could fit ours in that room. I paced around the big living room, insistent that I could make it work as a living/dining space.
And you guys? The house had a pirogi.
We left that day without a single picture on our camera, but wildly confused in spirit. This was not supposed to be a house we loved. This was supposed to just be a fun visit. Our warm-up to house hunting.
I told Ryan we would know better how we felt about it after we saw the other house. And I was sure he'd like the other house better. The problem was, I wasn't sure I'd like the other house better. Not anymore.
To be continued....
Thursday, February 11, 2016
The Beginning
So I sat here trying to think of something to blog about, and I decided to just go ahead and tell you the beginning of the we're-moving-unless-something-really-weird-goes-wrong story, because it's pretty much all we've got right now in the line of Shafferland stories. {And yet, what a big one!}
I should begin this way:
Hi, my name is Bekah and I have a realtor.com addiction.
It's true. For the last five years, if there has been a house for sale pretty much anywhere in the continental United States of America, I've read the listing and possibly memorized random, useless facts, such as the year it was built and whether it's on a public or private water source.
I'm not kidding. I just liked to know my options. You know...in case our house sold.
In that time frame, I learned one thing: if I loved a house more than life itself, it was guaranteed to sell in a week flat. And not to me. This is actually a proven fact. I cannot tell you how many houses I loved until it hurt and they just up and sold. It was kind of like my single years all over again. Find a cute man? He'd find a wife in a week. No joke.
Actually I guess I learned two things, because it also became pretty obvious that Ryan and I could never agree on a house. I would just be slobbering over one, and I'd hesitantly push the laptop his way for him to see, and before he'd even gotten to the INSIDE pictures, he'd found bushes and trees to rip out, a piece of peeling paint tucked under a window, and all manner of things I overlooked in the cuteness that swallowed me whole.
It's why we're a team. Otherwise I'd be living in some adorable shack that was about to fall over. But it would be cute as it fell! Let the record show!!!!
We went through seasons where both of us would spend our evenings perusing houses in various towns. We looked in our own town. We looked in lake towns. We looked in ocean towns. We looked in his work's town. You would think in one of those towns, we could agree on a house, wouldn't you?
Nope.
And so it was, not quite a month ago, I was feeding my addiction and I found the cutest house ever on the planet that had just come on the market. I showed it to Ryan and squinted while he scrolled, trying to avoid the forthcoming eyerolls and de-landscaping plans.
And he said, "I love it."
I'm sorry: what?
I wasted no time calling my real estate friend and asking her if she could get us a showing in that darling house. She set one up and I sat forever in front of each online picture, placing our furniture in the rooms.
The Friday before we were supposed to see the house, she called. It sold. In four days flat, the cutest house on the planet sold right out from underneath us, and we hadn't even gotten to see it for ourselves.
I immediately canceled all my plans for the day, curled up in the fat chair, and sobbed for the entire day. I didn't care. I didn't apologize. I was heartbroken and I intended to grieve it out. And I did.
By Saturday, Ryan and I took deep breaths and clicked back onto the realtor.com app to look for something else. We found nothing, but I felt we'd taken a big step by getting ourselves back out there. {When did life start to look like my dating years again??} And if nothing else, we'd learned that the truth was we really were both ready to move at the same time. And we had our sights set on the same town. That was new. And it felt good.
To be continued...
I should begin this way:
Hi, my name is Bekah and I have a realtor.com addiction.
It's true. For the last five years, if there has been a house for sale pretty much anywhere in the continental United States of America, I've read the listing and possibly memorized random, useless facts, such as the year it was built and whether it's on a public or private water source.
I'm not kidding. I just liked to know my options. You know...in case our house sold.
In that time frame, I learned one thing: if I loved a house more than life itself, it was guaranteed to sell in a week flat. And not to me. This is actually a proven fact. I cannot tell you how many houses I loved until it hurt and they just up and sold. It was kind of like my single years all over again. Find a cute man? He'd find a wife in a week. No joke.
Actually I guess I learned two things, because it also became pretty obvious that Ryan and I could never agree on a house. I would just be slobbering over one, and I'd hesitantly push the laptop his way for him to see, and before he'd even gotten to the INSIDE pictures, he'd found bushes and trees to rip out, a piece of peeling paint tucked under a window, and all manner of things I overlooked in the cuteness that swallowed me whole.
It's why we're a team. Otherwise I'd be living in some adorable shack that was about to fall over. But it would be cute as it fell! Let the record show!!!!
We went through seasons where both of us would spend our evenings perusing houses in various towns. We looked in our own town. We looked in lake towns. We looked in ocean towns. We looked in his work's town. You would think in one of those towns, we could agree on a house, wouldn't you?
Nope.
And so it was, not quite a month ago, I was feeding my addiction and I found the cutest house ever on the planet that had just come on the market. I showed it to Ryan and squinted while he scrolled, trying to avoid the forthcoming eyerolls and de-landscaping plans.
And he said, "I love it."
I'm sorry: what?
I wasted no time calling my real estate friend and asking her if she could get us a showing in that darling house. She set one up and I sat forever in front of each online picture, placing our furniture in the rooms.
The Friday before we were supposed to see the house, she called. It sold. In four days flat, the cutest house on the planet sold right out from underneath us, and we hadn't even gotten to see it for ourselves.
I immediately canceled all my plans for the day, curled up in the fat chair, and sobbed for the entire day. I didn't care. I didn't apologize. I was heartbroken and I intended to grieve it out. And I did.
By Saturday, Ryan and I took deep breaths and clicked back onto the realtor.com app to look for something else. We found nothing, but I felt we'd taken a big step by getting ourselves back out there. {When did life start to look like my dating years again??} And if nothing else, we'd learned that the truth was we really were both ready to move at the same time. And we had our sights set on the same town. That was new. And it felt good.
To be continued...
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Shafferland on the Move
I hadn't necessarily planned to talk about this in blogland yet, but since it's been on Facebook, I know some of you are wondering what in the world is going on with the crazy Shaffers.
Good. Question.
You guys, this is such a big story - and we are excited to tell you the FULL story as it continues to unfold, but today I shall just give you the background and the prayer request.
When I hired in at WBCL, I immediately put my house on the market, because I had no intentions of being a commuter. I hate driving, and I hate winter. Never once did I imagine - even for half a second - that the house would not sell. But it didn't. Not for a year and a half. And by that time, I was engaged to Ryan, and we decided selling a house AND getting married all at once wasn't the best idea for us. So we let the listing expire and got married.
What most of you probably do not know is that in the three years that we've been married, our house has been listed a total of three more times, once just by us, and twice by agents. And again: nothing. I didn't talk about it as much on here the other times because I figured there was no need to wear you ALL out with our real estate drama.
So to recap: in five years, the house has been listed a total of four times and it's never sold.
When our most recent listing expired in December, Ryan and I gave up. We figured God just must not want us to move, and we said we would be okay with being here and enjoying the blessing this house is {and has been!} to us. Ironically, though Ryan was the one most inconvenienced by our location {which still makes him a significant commuter}, I was the one who really had to surrender hard to be truly content staying. And I reached the place where I could say it and mean it. Truly.
Good. Question.
You guys, this is such a big story - and we are excited to tell you the FULL story as it continues to unfold, but today I shall just give you the background and the prayer request.
When I hired in at WBCL, I immediately put my house on the market, because I had no intentions of being a commuter. I hate driving, and I hate winter. Never once did I imagine - even for half a second - that the house would not sell. But it didn't. Not for a year and a half. And by that time, I was engaged to Ryan, and we decided selling a house AND getting married all at once wasn't the best idea for us. So we let the listing expire and got married.
What most of you probably do not know is that in the three years that we've been married, our house has been listed a total of three more times, once just by us, and twice by agents. And again: nothing. I didn't talk about it as much on here the other times because I figured there was no need to wear you ALL out with our real estate drama.
So to recap: in five years, the house has been listed a total of four times and it's never sold.
When our most recent listing expired in December, Ryan and I gave up. We figured God just must not want us to move, and we said we would be okay with being here and enjoying the blessing this house is {and has been!} to us. Ironically, though Ryan was the one most inconvenienced by our location {which still makes him a significant commuter}, I was the one who really had to surrender hard to be truly content staying. And I reached the place where I could say it and mean it. Truly.
***
About a year before I resigned from the station, I reached my personal commuter saturation point. After two particularly hard winters of driving, I just couldn't do it anymore. I would get in my car at 6:45 every morning, buckle in and know that I had to drive for the next hour. And at 4:15 every afternoon, I did it all over again. No matter the weather, no matter how I felt, no matter how hard the day had been, no matter how much I still had to do that evening, the drive loomed. I adored my job, but I reached the point when I could not get in that car for an hour one. more. time.
At first I thought the restlessness was just because I hated driving. But then I realized that even if I loved to drive, I had reached the point where commuting just didn't fit for me anymore. It didn't fit for us anymore. And God continued to use other situations to confirm what began with that inkling. And as He orchestrated the opening and closing of doors one at a time, the day came when I turned in my resignation letter.
The same weariness of a long commute that I experienced back then has {at last} settled over Ryan, too. His drive is equally long and tiresome, and the time has come. I recognized it in him maybe even before he recognized it in himself. Even though he enjoys driving and this winter hasn't been all that bad, the hours lost on the road have taken their toll.
And so it is, that right about the time we decided we were meant to stay, God unmistakably opened the door for us to go. We are walking into a new chapter in bold faith, but there is a huge piece of this story that we would love you to join us in praying about: the sale of our current home. We believe God has a plan, and we are eager to see just how He chooses to reveal it. Will you pray specifically with us that this house will sell without ANY of the drama that selling Ryan's house entailed?
We know this house doesn't have a history of selling, but we serve a God Who is not the least bit bothered by that detail. So we choose to trust, believing He can make a way where one has not existed before.
We know this house doesn't have a history of selling, but we serve a God Who is not the least bit bothered by that detail. So we choose to trust, believing He can make a way where one has not existed before.
Tuesday, February 09, 2016
Big Gulps, and Not the Drinks
It's TUESDAY!!!! Podcast day! We're telling stories of dates and Valentine's Day and how we're learning to strap on the full armor of God!
I don't know if you saw the Saturday Six or not, but I told you about the book I just finished reading for my devotions over the past month. It was written by Debbie Alsdorf and focused on living in bold faith. So the next book on my shelf was also written by Debbie and is called A Woman Who Trusts God.
I'm only a couple of days into it and have very nearly already drained one pen from underlining. I might have known that moving from the topic of faith to trust that this was not going to be easy.
Debbie talked about how all of us have "meantimes" throughout our lives. She says it's "that place in between a problem recognized and a solution realized." {page 18} Your meantime probably doesn't look anything like mine, but we both have them, don't we?
She goes ON to say this, which is what made me start doing the big gulp: "How will we live in that space between our prayer to God and the answer on earth? Does the meantime rob us of joy? Does it steal our peace and dilute our faith? Does it distract our focus? Does the meantime open the door for chaos and worry?" {page 18}
Oh man.
I remember back when I lived in the desert place, I knew I had been chosen for that time, as hard as it was, and I desperately wanted to be found faithful. I focused hard on living well in that time. That was a deep, hard meantime, and I wanted to live it well.
But I confess I don't always put as much effort toward the "tiny meantimes" I live. I confess that I do let the meantime steal my joy and dilute my faith. It does distract me, and I've been known to worry a time or two in my life.
Hence the big gulp.
So this is my focus in prayer this week. As Ryan and I live in meantimes of our own, I want to come out of them full of joy, full of even bigger faith, and full of peace. We both want that.
So how about your meantime?
Monday, February 08, 2016
Times of Rest
This past weekend was our church's annual prayer retreat. Ryan and I had registered to attend last year, but he got that upper respiratory nightmare and we had to cancel at the last minute. This year, our schedule prevented us from going, but some of my friends went, and I served as their at-home prayer partner throughout the weekend. While it was not overly warm here in Indiana this weekend, it was beautiful, and occasionally I'd get texts from them with pictures of the sun shining over the lake at the retreat center.
Picturesque. Serene. Lovely.
Restful.
Anyone else need some rest around here? My goodness, we sure have. We knew going into 2016 that the first couple of months were going to be busier than normal. We knew that commitments we made even before the year began would demand much of us as a couple, and that was okay. Sometimes it's easier to tackle a busy season when you have prior warning that it's coming. But knowing merely helps you brace. It doesn't help you rest.
So in the busyness, we've been forced to find creative ways to rest. We've made adjustments here and there to our schedule and temporarily put aside things we normally do so we can spend that time giving our bodies and souls the rest they crave.
I used to find my satisfaction in having the longest list of accomplishments. The fattest scrapbook. The fullest calendar. And while I still like those things, I'm finding a renewed satisfaction in times of rest. The moments in which nothing is scheduled and yet everything is refreshed.
Yesterday after Ryan and I came home from church, we just settled in on the couch and rested. It's not unusual for us to take a Sunday afternoon nap, but this day wasn't so much about just napping as it was about finding soul and body rest. And it was heavenly.
It reminded me of my college days, actually. I grew up in a home where my parents both practiced and taught complete rest on Sundays. No work of any kind happened on Sundays. No laundry, no cleaning, no homework, no lawn mowing - just rest. And when I went to college, I decided to take the practice with me. So every Sunday, while my roommates crammed for tests and read textbooks, I curled up with the remote or a book. I did my nails and talked on the phone. And in those things I found rest for my soul. The same kind of rest Ryan and I fight to find now in the rare free moments we have in our days.
The rest matters. God knows you need it, which is why He wrote a day of rest into each week. So for you, whether it's sitting by a lake or taking a nap on the couch or going for a walk...find your rest. Your soul and body need it.
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