Lifelore

As I sit here and try to figure out how to even start this blog entry, I realize that the events of the last week are hard to put into words. My whole family and I ventured completely out of our comfort zones in order to continue on the journey of our new adventure. When we started the week, we had no idea that it would be completed in the way that it was.

Last Tuesday morning, Tim and I boarded an airplane to Florida to begin our new home search. Our 2 kids stayed at home. This is not only the first time that they have been left at home overnight alone but they also had the added responsibility of keeping the house in tip top shape for showings. We made a checklist for them before we left of the daily jobs and housework that HAD to be done every single day. They had to get up early each day and clean the house in preparation to show our house to perspective buyers.

Tim and I arrived in Florida early Tuesday afternoon and rented a car to travel to Bradenton, Florida. We met our realtor at his office by mid afternoon. Our jam packed week of house shopping had begun.

We spent the rest of Tuesday, all of Wednesday, Thursday, and half of Friday traveling with our realtor across the city of Bradenton. We looked at probably 15-20 houses by the end of our time there. We lost track of the amount.

We really got to know our realtor well. When we would go our own ways in the evenings, he would always shake Tim’s hand and give me a hug. We definitely developed a close friendship with him. He was wonderful!

One of the most shocking discoveries of our trip was the cost of houses down there. Houses are going for double the price that we are used to in our town. Even at those high prices, every single house that we looked at needed about $10,000-15,000 worth of work. We saw a ton of absolute junk at those high prices.

We did put an offer on a house that we had been looking at online for about 30 days. The price was still high and it did need some work, but it was perfect for us. A couple of hours after we submitted our offer, we were informed that they had accepted another offer earlier that day. We were disappointed. The house had been for sale for over 30 days and the day that we put our offer in, someone had JUST beat us to it.

The hardest part of our trip was being away from our kids. Thank goodness for modern technology! I do not know how our parents raised us without those conveniences. We were able to text, call, and Skype whenever we wanted to, and we did it A LOT! Every night we would Skype each other and pray together as a family, just like we do every single night here at home. Also, right before we submitted our offer on the house, Tim and I drove to the house, Skyped the kids, and we all prayed together for wisdom and for God’s will to be done on that offer.

Tim and I began our 15 hour drive home on Friday afternoon and we drove straight through. We had a lot of time to think, pray, and talk. We were so disappointed that we had not found “our” house down there. Not only did we not find it, but we did not want to be making payments on an overpriced house that still needed tons of work and money invested in it.

We came home torn! Everything seemed to be working out so smoothly in the beginning. We wanted to move to Florida so bad! We decided to talk it over with our kids and come to a final decision during the weekend.

As we talked and prayed over the weekend it became clear that we needed to stay in Noblesville. We attended a new church plant in our city on Sunday. As we sat there, Tim and I were very emotional and felt that the Lord was telling us to stay. We have family and friends at this church and would love to serve the Lord there with our time and talents. The fact that we could not find a quality and affordable house in Florida in addition to not being able to sell ours at this time was also a humungous factor in our decision,

We are beyond disappointed! We thought that we were suppose to move to Florida, but the Lord has shown us otherwise. We made a great friend in our realtor and if nothing else, the journey was worth it just to get to know him better. We have learned so many things over the past few months and definitely this past week.

We are so proud of our kids. They not only stayed home alone for almost a week but kept the house in amazing order for house showings. When we arrived back home, it was in the exact condition that Tim and I would have left it for showings. They had to grow up really fast and they did incredible.

The reason I started this blog was to share our journey to Florida. I debated with myself about stopping the blog but then I realized that life itself is an adventure. It doesn’t matter where we are or what we are doing, every day is a journey and is worth sharing from time to time. The life goal of my family and I is to serve the Lord with all of our hearts. Our prayer through this whole thing is that we would do God’s will and that we would be where we can serve Him best and bring Him glory in all that we do and say. After all, that is why we are born in the first place. That is all that matters!

So although the location of our adventure has changed, our goal has not changed. Every day is a new beginning!  We are looking forward to what God has for us and will always continue to look to Him for guidance and direction. It has been awesome to see His hand guiding every single step of this path!

Written by Kathryn Conrad