Birthdays, Versaries, and Such

Today is a very eventful day. Much to observe, much to celebrate, much to remember. And there's no possible way to put all these things in any kind of correct order, so I'll just dive in and go!

Our baby girl turns eleven today.

(That's an old picture, but it seemed appropriate.)

Eleven years old! Can you believe that?

(These pictures are from the day I first got her and from last Mother's Day. We both came a long way in a decade, yes?)

She's a daddy's girl through and through now...could really take or leave me, but she's still cute and fun (except for when she wants to play at 4 in the morning) and keeps life in our little Shafferland very interesting.

Happy birthday, Braeya Jo Jo!

ALSO in the land of birthdays, my sister Lori turns an undisclosed amount of years today. :)  These photos are from Cassie's wedding weekend last summer. (We don't get to have pictures together very often because you know...850 miles apart.)

Happy birthday, Lori!!!! I hope this is a wonderful, non-eventful day for you. Love you!

Because ten years ago today, her birthday was not uneventful. Today marks the ten year anniversary of the tornado that destroyed most of their town, including their home and church. (What a lousy birthday present, right?)

I blogged a lot about that tornado back in the day, starting with this post, where I first asked you to pray for them. I didn't know much of anything at that time except it was all just bad. 

Turns out I didn't even really know what bad was until I saw the pictures.

This is a picture of the bathroom where the three of them were (in the basement of their house) during the tornado. The green towel hanging on the piece of wood is above/behind the toilet where they were all crouched. The planks on the right side of the picture are making a bridge from the back step to the top of the stairway to the basement. The night of the tornado, those planks weren't there, but neither was the floor that used to connect the stairway to the back door. So they had to jump across that hole, in the dark, in order to escape.

 The house.

 The church.

Obviously we remain so grateful for the protection over them physically the night of the storm and we are thankful God has provided every need since then. They now have a new home and a new church building, and my brother-in-law, Jeff, just released a book recounting his perspective on the storm and the heart-recovery the followed. It's called Light at the End of the Funnel.

 While there is no real graceful segue out of the loss of their home into this next versary, today also marks one year since we officially sold our home in Marion!

This praise party was FOR REAL. Five years is a long wait for a house sale. (And I know some of you have probably waited even longer. Bless you!!!)

 Our Realtor, Cathy. She made this process amazing.

Happy sale-aversary to us!!!

And not to be outdone by our own versary, I did want to mention that this week we celebrated our 53rd monthiversary. Wow! I continue to be in awe of this life I have the privilege to live beside Ryan. He is a blessing, and I'm grateful for him.

He did have to work (crazy how work doesn't recognize monthiversaries, isn't it?) so we celebrated in the evening by eating chicken nuggets, asparagus, and a new cookie recipe I found on Dashing Dish.

The official monthiversary photo:

And the post-workout photo. Because we are so cool that we work out for fun to celebrate.

See? I told you it was a big day!!

So grateful for God's goodness and faithfulness. I think it's demonstrated well in these pictures.

Linking up with Tamar (who has a yummy looking recipe today)!!!

The Shafferland Shuffle

Before I recap what may have been the BIGGEST WEEK EVER IN SHAFFERLAND, I want to pause to wish a happy Mother's Day to my mother, my mother-in-law, and my step-mother-in-law. I'm very grateful for each of these ladies that are moms to me. I'm also grateful for all the moms who have adopted me in and loved me as though I belonged to them!

* Last Sunday, Ryan and I were exhausted, but we had coffee duty at church, so we got up early and reported in to start brewing! After we came home from church, we fell into bed and slept HARD for almost three hours. We felt so much better after that! I had fun playing with my new chalkboard-on-a-door and then we began the first of the goodbyes for the week. We met up with our friends who bought the Bekah-mobile and said our fond farewell to my car from the last thirteen years! 

* Monday night we said our final goodbyes to the house in Marion. We made one last trip over to mow the yard and walk through, have our good meltdown, have our last dance, and lock the door behind us for the last time. It ended up being much more emotional than I expected it to be, but it felt fitting, somehow, for this to be the way we spent our 41st monthiversary!

* Tuesday, some of Ryan's work buddies came over to help him hang cabinets in the garage. These were extra cabinets we took out of the kitchen when we tore down the wall. We hated to get rid of them, and I needed some more storage, so we hung them out there! YAY! We also picked out the first round of our flowers for this year, which was such fun. And we even got to rest a bit and watch a TV show. {Funny how that now feels like a luxury.}

* Wednesday was our BIG, BIG DAY!!! We officially closed on our Marion house...and Braeya turned ten! It was a lot to celebrate! We loved being able to officially sign the house over to its new owner, to celebrate with him, and to have a little party for our girl to celebrate her advancement into double digits!! PRAISE THE LORD for the huge answer to prayer in selling our house!

* Thursday evening, I traveled to another town to attend a meeting for a retreat I'm speaking at later this year, and on the way home, the sunset was so beautiful! I loved that! Meanwhile, Ryan decided our yard is not best suited for a push mower {YAY!!!!} and a friend of his had a riding mower to sell, so he went to pick it up for a test run!

* Friday I worked to plant flowers, and I especially loved this old red wagon full of flowers. The wagon was mine when I was a kid! I made long lists of stuff that needed to be done before Mother's Day, and then I helped plant more flowers while Ryan reconstructed the pedestal stones we brought from our old house!

* Yesterday Ryan worked hard to finish the landscaping, including putting in our fire pit, and I worked hard inside to get all the food ready for Mommapalooza! LOTS of cooking! We took a break in the evening, to attend our niece's birthday party, and then we went back home and got back to work. WHEW! What a crazy busy week! :)

It's a PRAISE PARTY!!!!!!

For the last five years, I have come to you with the same prayer request. Post after post, time after time, interrupted by spurts when I tried to give you a break because I felt you were as weary of hearing about it as I was of talking about it. And yet you were always so gracious.

But yesterday. Yesterday.

This.

 God. Sold. Our. House.


It was a day that I confess I feared may never come. And that included yesterday morning when I woke up and got out of bed. I'd heard horror stories of buyers who didn't show up at the closing and figured that sounded about like something that would happen to us. And yet even with the fears that I allowed {shame on me!!} to burn wild, I had this underlying peace straight from the Lord that this would be okay. That this buyer wouldn't bail.

For all the times I prayed and God said no {or wait}, there was a good reason. One of the best reasons is standing beside me in that picture. Had I been granted an immediate yes on this house sale five years ago, he never would have asked me out and we never would have gotten married. So that was a pretty great denial of a house sale.

And I'll be honest: I didn't just pray for God to sell the house. I prayed for God to sell the house to someone who could love and appreciate its legacy and who would use it for the Kingdom. Because that's what this house has always been about. Always. All the way back to when my grandparents lived there. Sometimes I hated praying that prayer because I feared I was sealing my own delay/denial on a sale. Why couldn't I just pray, like a normal person, that the thing would sell? On the double???

Because I knew the house was meant for more than just an owner. It was meant for a Christ-loving caretaker and the right one wasn't ready yet.

I met our buyer back on the first day we moved into our present house. Ryan had come on over to demo the wall in the new house and I stayed behind for the home inspection of the first house. The buyer arrived and shook my hand, looked me in the eye and promised me he would love and care for the house the same way we had. He had found my blog and read my posts and knew the house was more than just a structure. It had a legacy and he would carry it on.

And I knew he was trustworthy. A kindred soul of sorts.

So we waited. The thing we seem to do best and love the least. We waited for paperwork. I panicked a few {dozen} times and texted our {longsuffering} Realtor to say what if he changes his mind and runs away and this house never sells and they take away our new house? God love her. She was patient and talked me down from more than one seller-ledge.

Last week we heard the news. Wednesday, May 4 at one p.m. Closing. And still I couldn't exhale. Those horror stories blared in my mind.

I kept a nervous eye on the phone all day yesterday. What if she called and said it was off? That he'd gotten cold feet? {For the record, I did not worry about cold feet ONE TIME in approaching my wedding. I paid for it with plethora of house sale fretting.}

She didn't call, so we got in the car and drove to town. She didn't call, so we made our way, hesitantly, onto the street and before all four wheels hit the pavement of our own street, I saw that beautiful red beacon of a sold sign perched on top of the everlasting sale sign.

And I cried. Happy, happy tears. We hadn't signed yet, but if she had put up the sold sign, I could at least breathe for a minute.

And right there in the front lawn, we had a praise party. Cars drove by and we ignored them while we leapt and wept in front of a sold sign - capturing the moments from a timer and a tripod across the street.

So we went to the title company to sign it all over. We met our dear buyer, who again immediately assured us of the good plans he had for this house and the love and care he would offer it.

We gave him gifts and our heartiest congratulations - easy to do when we knew our beloved home would continue to be fully beloved.

And I have to pause to thank our Realtor. Five years ago, I listed this house with a woman named Susan, who worked for this same company, and for close to a year, she tried to sell it. Within the last two years, we listed the house two different times with Molly, also from this same company, and she worked hard to sell it. In the end, it was Cathy who made the sale, but I wanted to mention all three, because in my mind, all three were part of this story God wrote. The other two may not have made the final sale, but they worked with me {then with us} and were kind and trustworthy in trying to help us. The entire time, I knew God was the real Realtor, and He would pull out this sold sign when the moment was right.

Even so, Cathy has been a joy to us. I met her almost twenty years ago when she and I both worked in Financial Aid. I actually took her position when she left the school and I ventured forth on my own. Who would have known that all these many years later, she would come back into my life and be part of this pivotal step in our journey?

It was a beautiful day, the signing. After all the signing was done, Ryan, Cathy and I joined hands with our buyer and Ryan prayed over him and over the future he will have in that home. {And I cried, because that is what I do.}

And then it was done. We breathed. All the way out. And all the way in again.

It felt appropriate to celebrate with my coveted annual strawberry shortcake:

So the day may be done, but the praise and celebration continues heartily. We are so thankful. Thankful for the whole story, for the lessons learned in the hard times, and for the immense blessing of being back to one home again.

Thank you...so much...for all the times you prayed for this sale. We celebrate WITH YOU because you were part of this with us.

The Shafferland Shuffle-Til-You-Drop

My goodness. WHAT A WEEK!!!!!! Let's just say it went NOTHING like we envisioned heading into it, but it was really wonderful anyway!

* Last Sunday was Easter, and while you've already read about that, I'll recap by saying we went to church and then to my parents' house for lunch, followed by a visit to Ryan's family for an Easter egg hunt. We were really excited that the day was so gorgeous, because by evening, it was a raining, hailing, windy mess. That wouldn't have been good for an egg hunt!

* Monday morning we were at Lowe's BEFORE IT OPENED. And when it opens at 6:30 in the morning, I submit to you that is TOO EARLY. I spent the day painting our kitchen {and touching up other paint around the house} and then that night, our friend Shawn came over WITH COFFEE and helped Ryan reinstall some kitchen cabinets that had been taken down during demo. He was such a blessing. I never would have been able to wrestle those cabinets. It took them forever and they knew what they were doing!!

* Tuesday will be a multi-post event, but just to preview for you what is coming...that was the day we moved Braeya to the new house. T.r.a.u.m.a.-r.a.m.a. It was so awful. She cried, I cried, and I was pretty sure she might have a little kitty heart attack on us. But we got her moved. And MUCH to our surprise, Shawn {see Monday} offered to drive to our Marion house, get all the boxes I'd packed, and move them TO our new house. We had no idea we would have all those things so quickly, and it was such a blessing! By the end of the day, I was able to start setting up the new kitchen, which I sorely needed for some normalcy in my life.

* Wednesday I worked at the new house all day, trying to get the kitchen fully set up and functioning, and then that evening, we drove to Marion {in the rain} to take down our built in bookshelves and take apart Mo and pack up a few more things. We had some helped lined up for Thursday evening to haul over furniture, so we wanted to be as ready for them as we could be. When we arrived, we discovered a "sale pending" sign in our yard. THAT MADE US SO HAPPY!!!!

* Thursday morning, I had to take our car in for servicing, so I took advantage of the dealership's free wifi and caught up online, since we still didn't have access at our new house. That night we planned to have a caravan of friends who owned trucks help us move our furniture. There was a 100% chance of rain and heavy wind, though, so my parents urged us to go the box truck route instead, and they were wise with that idea. Our crew for that evening ended up consisting of Ryan's brother, my parents, and the two of us, and we loaded up and headed for our new home!!

 * We had unloaded as much of the truck as we could do on our own Thursday evening, and then Friday morning, one of Ryan's strong co-workers came over to help him unload the heavy stuff. I worked all day, unpacking boxes, setting up the closet and the bedroom and even doing a little decorating in the kitchen. We also got our living room furniture in place and had our first Mo slumber party that night!

* Yesterday was our 40th monthiversary, and we actually had the day together! A Christmas miracle! {And it actually felt like Christmas, as the entire day was an Indiana nightmare of wind/sun/rain/snow that literally cycled through every five minutes.} Ryan and I started a project of putting stone on a wall, and I made my first dessert in our new house! It was a perfect day at home together.

A Week Ago Today...

Now that I'm all done saying in-print goodbyes {I think} to our first home together, and I've told you all about our Great Dane adventures, I am going to back up and catch up on other fun house news!

If you heard the podcast this week, you already know this story, but I like to have a print version of things as well as an audio version, and I thought you might like to see some pictures of the day, too!!

I'm also going to throw in some really fun only-God details, because I think you'll like them. {I know I do.}

A week ago yesterday, our house was shown in the evening. {Our current house that we're trying to sell. I know, "our house" can be such a confusing term these days. We get it. When we say "let's go home," we have to stop and think about where we mean!} We left for a couple of hours so the showing could take place, got some coffee, did some shopping, and then we came back. And the showing was still happening. WHOOPSIE!!!

So we went down the street to wait.

And then when we saw them leave, we went home.

I just had a different feeling this time. I had prayed so hard all day before the showing, and I even felt like I battled some spiritual warfare over it, and then when Ryan and I were in Lowe's, I just felt this peace settle over me that I can't explain. {Miracle in Lowe's?}

Friday afternoon, Ryan got home about a half hour early, which was wonderful and kind of uncommon. He had just walked in when our Realtor called. She said she doesn't normally make calls like this, but she just HAD to tell us that an offer would be coming our way.

WHAT?!?!!?!?!?!?

I had to smile and cry all at once:

We waited all evening to see if the official email came in, but it didn't. The next day, Saturday, was Ryan's first Saturday at home since December 21. We were sitting on the couch catching up on DVR'd shows when it came in.

Scared to open the email to see the offer:

Speaking of scared...can we pause to talk about the bedhead????

And then we opened it.

You guys, it was a fair offer, and we were THRILLED. It was possibly one of the best days of our entire year so far. We signed the offer and returned it and immediately resumed packing.

I shared a bit of this in the podcast, and I don't want to say too much on here because it's not my story to tell, but I will add that in the days since, we've learned a bit more about the buyer and we are thrilled to our core that the history and legacy of this home will be continued. I could not have hand-picked a better person to pass the baton to, and I sincerely mean this. Leaving this home will still be a version of hard, and I know it. But so much easier knowing the house will be in great hands. Caring hands.

Like we said on the podcast, it's not a completely done deal yet. We know the financing still has to go through, and we await that. But my goodness. We celebrate God's goodness and continue to tremble at the amazing story He's writing in this time of transition.

I can't wait to start telling you stories of life at Shafferland 2.0, which is now officially underway!