The Journey Home

When God wants something to happen, His ways aren't thwarted! We have some great news to share with you. We put down an offer on a house, and they have accepted our offer! FINALLY!!! We are happy, but mostly just relieved now that this house process is over. :) It was a journey to get home, and as always, it comes with a God story!!! It's a long read, but worth it....

We had looked at quite a few houses. And the Lord said no, for one reason or another, to seven properties we looked at. Our prayer has always been to move forward in faith, and if this wasn't the house for us, God would close the door. Dear friends, as hard as it was, God remains faithful, and true.

After our thorough search, we decided that our dream house (the newer house, had a big yard, backs to trees) was not in this area at the price we wanted to pay--one in which we wouldn't be house poor. There were very nice houses at the max of our budget, but we generally had to compete against many other offers, and didn't have the room to counter. Meanwhile, the houses have appreciated by $50,000 and the townhouses only $20,000 and the interest rates were starting to creep up. We had several choices:

1. Wait.To stay put, refinance, and save up for the dream house in five years.
2. Sacrifice. Buy a single family dream home now while the rates were low enough, but we couldn't vacation, eat out, or save for a new car.
3. Enjoy. Buy a home that's within our price range, and position ourselves in five years if we wanted to go for the dream home, we could.

We chose the last option!

So last Friday, we narrowed it down to four properties. They were all GREAT houses, but again, they all had their trade offs:

• Great house, OK lot.
• OK house, Great lot.
• OK house, OK lot.
• Great house, No lot. Great price. (Total reduction $89,000!)
  

Truly, we couldn't decide. In His perfect timing, we had dinner with a friend of ours who we respect, and he said something at dinner that helped confirm our decision. He said you know 'no house is worth any stress'. In his case, he worked quite a bit to pay for his house and the price he had to pay was time with his family. It seemed easy. Patrick decided that the best house was one in which we live more financially free, so we chose the house previously blogged "Enormous", which had been reduced $20,000 since we last saw it. I, of course, was elated because it is a gorgeous townhome in a great community, Landsdowne, with 0ver 4600 square feet, and has $75K worth of upgrades.

Just when we get ready to put the offer down, the plot thickens. We see another listing that same morning that we couldn't believe --a new house in Ashburn, with a yard, that backs to trees and get this - also backs to water! It's our 100%. It is at the highest end of our budget (of course!) so we are tempted, and we go to make an offer, and already --two other offers are on it. Again, we sit back and continue to pray specifically that if God doesn't want us to have this house, that he would close the door. Well, that very afternoon, we put a call into our lender who says to us, 'did you know this week the interest rates have gone up again, the largest increase in six months?' All of a sudden, the numbers changed for us and already the stretched price tag with the increased interest rates, and now PMI, was taking us beyond our limit. We had to choose our options to sacrifice or enjoy. And did we really mean it when we wanted to honor God with His money? Sadly, we withdrew our offer. That was painful.

It gets worse.

In that 24 hour period, the townhouse that we already decided we wanted, now goes under contract!! Agggghhh!

But wait, it's not a done deal. Our realtor tells us that their contract is contingent upon the sale of their home, so there's a kickout! If we put in an offer that's not contingent, than they have 48 hours to lift their contingency. This is where I thank God for my husband's credit and debt to income ratio, because even in this market where banks are less giving, we were able to qualify for a loan for two mortgages. We put down our offer and we waited...and waited...and waited...two days could not have stretched any longer! Finally, a call comes and we're told the other party backed out, and that the house is ours. Our dream-e house is ours! I am Elated, Excited, and now...at Ease!

You know so many times people say that if the Lord has it for you, it will be easy and peaceful. And I have always struggled with that line of thinking because it has never been true in my life. Every good gift from above has always come.... with me on my knees, waiting, wrestling, trusting, and ultimately praising no matter the outcome. He was there from the start, and if we hadn't gone through what we went through, I surely wouldn't know that it was only from Him!

But wait, the deal is still not yet done. Anything could fall through. And if we've learned anything in this process - it's that God's ways aren't thwarted---if He has a house for you, He will lead you to it. We're still trusting.

Pictures of the week

Not often that every week of your life gets documented, but at least my kids could never say I didn't get enough pictures of them. Here's snapshots of our fun week:

It was beach day at Mainly Music, a Thursday morning program at our church that Micah and Caelan attend with their cousin Gabriel and Liliana.

Then we celebrated their Auntie Heather's birthday
at Grandma & Grandpa's house, on their back deck.

While Caelan got quality lap time with Aunt Heather
and Uncle Eric, so did Micah. With grandma!

And we spent the rest of the weekend at church, looking at houses (we put down another offer by the way) and also spent time with the Lauers, and their kids. Micah, Audrey (in the middle) and Joshua on the swings at Dinosaur Park in Ashburn.


We're looking forward to kicking off the summer by spending quality time with family and friends. Since we really can't afford to do anything too exciting as far as summer travels, it doesn't really matter where we go, as long as we're with people we love, and enjoy!

Dream -e- House

Excited.
Exhilarated.
Exhausted.
Emotional.
Empty.

That's how we feel as we've gone through our house search. Patrick didn't really want me to blog this so that I wouldn't take you with me through this emotional roller coaster, but I need blog therapy! The two of us agreeing on a perfect house has become next to impossible. Also, our must-haves list became a moving target. All these amazing houses (and more!) were ones in which we were seriously considering putting down an offer. We only managed to put one down, and got outbidded.

Enormous.
Immaculate upgrades. Larger than a single family.
Not a single family.
Landsdowne

Enchanting.
Single family. Enchanting porch. Does not have a large yard.
Brambleton

Elderly.
Has a huge yard. Backs to trees. Twenty years old. Low ceilings.
Ashburn Village

Elegant.
10 ft-ceilings. New. Has a good yard. No porch. Doesn't back to trees. Too snooty.
Leesburg - River Creek Golf Community

Equitable.
Not too snooty. Has a good yard. Huge house. Great price. Outbidded.
Potomac Station in Leesburg

Expensive.
No bidding in new construction. Has a yard. A porch. Backs to trees. Not snooty. Rooms too small.
Ashburn-The Glen at Loudoun Valley

Earth-shaking.
Large rooms. Has a yard, a porch, backs to trees. Almost perfect. In the flight path (red zone) for a future runway at Dulles!
I AM NOT KIDDING!!!!
Arcola

It doesn't appear that we'll EVER find that dream home, that matches all of our criteria. We've come so far in this search, that we're also unwilling to compromise what we know we want if this is our forever house! As frustrated as this may seem, I do earnestly believe that God does have the perfect house with everything we want. What I'm unsure of is whether or not we'll be sane by the time we find it! :) Thanks for letting me data-dump on you. I always feel much better.

Memorial Day Weekend

First off, I want to give thanks to all of our military who gave their lives in the past, and those doing so now, to protect this country's freedom. Escaping a war-torn country full of corruption, I for one, understand and appreciate the freedoms that I have here in America. In the Ring family, I am proud to say that Patrick's dad, Roger, served in the Navy and his brother-in-laws, Everett and Eric, both served in the Marines and the Army. Thank you guys for all you've done, and do for this nation!

So, how did we celebrate our Memorial Day Weekend? Well, by pursuing the American dream! For starters, we put an offer down on a ridiculously priced house in Leesburg. Here it is! 5 bedrooms, 3900 square feet, 1/4 acre and listed at $419,000 (for those not in the DC market, this house is assessed at $537,000.) It's a foreclosure, and five other offers are on it. Please pray that we get the house God has for us!!!

Then, we celebrated Natalie's first birthday. Natalie belongs to Jenny, a mom that I became friends with in our mom's group since Micah was 10 weeks old! They had the sprinkler on for the kids outside.


That evening, our community had their annual "summer kickoff" where local vendors served food, and kids could go on moonbounces or rides. We picnic'd with some of the square pegs.

Micah had his first funnel cake.

Caelan zonked out from the heat, and fun.

And the Newtons invited us over to their Memorial Day backyard barbecue, and more fun was had in the kiddie blow up pools. Micah and BFF, Liam enjoy a wagon ride.

And to top the icing on a great weekend, we also had a visit from my mom and both kids got quality time with grandma.

Quite a memorable weekend! Thank you God for all the liberties we have, and the innumerable blessings that we often take for granted!

Micah Man is 2 and one half

It's simply amazing. That we survived half of the terrible two! Micah can definitely be very trying with his insistent "No, Mommy! I NOT do that!" Or his public tantrums whenever we leave a play date. Or his bedtime delaying tactics, his pickiness with food, and just his downright defiance when we ask him to do something. It can take 10 minutes (or more) to get him dressed and I grit my teeth because he doesn't want help, but he can't do it himself. When he used to hardly get spanked, he probably gets a good dose of discipline once, sometimes twice a day.

Daily, I get into these power struggles and feel I have a moral right to win them. Most of the time, the harder I push, the more my toddler will resist and the more frustrated I get. I am learning perspective though, and instead of giving the terrible two's the bad reputation it gets, I am seriously trying to embrace it. And the best advice I've ever been given as a control-freak mom is to just lower my expectations.

There is something quite beautiful about this age. To name a few, Micah is a little person with thoughts, opinions, and a will of his own. If I ask on a hot summer day to wear his sandals, he vehemently says, 'No, I want to wear my NEW shoes.' He tells me exactly what he wants to eat and that the food on his plate is not acceptable. And it's not just any book at nap time, it's a specific title book and tells me which shelf it's on so that I may reach up to get it. He reports in detail to his dad what he did that day, and who he did it with. He's refreshingly honest.

And that baby whose needs I catered to day and night, now wants to care for me too. One night, I was staring off into space, and he turned to me and asked, 'Mommy, what are you thinking?' I couldn't believe it. I've been trying to get Patrick to ask me that question for six years! And every night at dinner, he always asks his dad, 'How was your day, Daddy?' So endearing.

And he just loves to learn! Teachable moments are everywhere at this age, and I don't need to worry about pursuing formal learning experiences (that's good because we're too poor right now to send him to preschool) but Micah speaks like 8-word sentences and he conjugates! Our conversation the other day blew me away.

"Micah, Will you eat?"
"No, I won't."
"You will."
"No, I can't."
"I think you can."
"No, I won't."

(I put some strawberries in front of him, and he immediate starts eating.)

"Hmmh...I think you are."
(licks his lips)
"I think I am."

The best part is that my two year old is teaching me some of my most important lessons. One day Micah was driving me crazy most of the morning and I was so frustrated with his behavior. At the end of my rope, I yelled at him harshly. And then I saw his shoulders drop, and his spirit just crushed. I had never yelled at him like that. I walked over to him, got down to his level, and said, 'Micah, Mommy is so sorry I yelled at you. I am such a bad mommy.' And he looks up with big tears in his eyes and says to me, 'that's okay mommy, I was a bad Micah.' And then the tears came because my son taught me grace and forgiveness!

So, I guess the two's aren't so terrible after all. Okay, maybe a bit premature...check back with me in the next six months! :)

How Tall is Jesus?

At our house at dinner time, we encourage Micah to eat meat and vegetables so he can be as tall as our good friend Steve. Almost always the conversation goes like this:

Daddy: Micah eat your meat and vegetables
Mommy: So you can be big and tall
Micah: Like Mr. Steve!
Mommy: Yes, just like Mr. Steve
(Amazingly, this line of thinking works better than any other tactic we've used to make him eat his food.)

So one day, he runs into my arms and says:
Micah: Mommy, I'm scared!
Mommy: Why are you scared?
Micah: Monsters!
Mommy: Silly, monsters aren't real.
Micah: But Jesus is with me!
Mommy: Yes he is, Jesus is always with you.
Micah: I'm not scared. Jesus is big and tall.
(after a long pause)
Micah: (Excitedly) Mommy! Jesus is taller than Mr. Steve!!!
Mommy: Yes, he is baby, Jesus is much taller than Mr. Steve. (He gets it!)

Celebrating Mother's Day

I'm pretty sure I don't have enough space to write how much of a blessing it is to be Micah and Caelan's mom. I pinch myself each day thanking God for my life, and how I get to be with these two to watch them grow, and to train them up to eventually change the world. I can't wait as they get older to be able to show them their significance, and give them a secure love. There is a love I can pass on to them that is steady, sure, and available to them, whether I'm here or not, and that's the infinite love of God. It will be there for them when they face public school!

Do not get me wrong when I say that motherhood has tested me to the point of insanity, but every time I get to that breaking point, I always remember how at my worst, I was given grace. And it gives me strength to be a grace-based mom, remembering to view them the way God does.

I remember about six months ago, Micah ran one of his toys across the coffee table. I went to check, and sure enough there was a scratch across it. I was so mad! I disciplined him, and after he said he was sorry and "no do it again", I couldn't help being angry for weeks that my table was forever destroyed. Then just last week, the boys were with their dad and the house was quiet. I grabbed some coffee, and sat by the coffee table. Then, I saw it. That dreaded scratch. Surprisingly, I smiled. It was a reminder that I have a beautiful boy who is two, and will continue to leave marks all over this house. I ran my fingers across the deep scratch, and then my mind fast-forwarded twenty years, and the kids are all out of the house, and the silence is deafening. Suddenly, that scratch is a fond memory of a time that was so precious. And so fleeting!