Updated House Listing Link - Use this one!

For all you Google Reader (or other RSS feeds) fans, here's an updated LINK to our house listing at the local Century 21 office.

Want To Buy Our House?

Yes, that is our house. And yes, that is a FOR SALE sign in our yard. And trust me, we are just as shocked as you are! Moving has not been in our plan (before or even a year or more after our kids come home). NOT. AT. ALL.

It all happened in a whirlwind last week shortly after getting home from California. I was in a daze trying to adjust back to normal life so the thought of moving before our kids come made me want to throw up. This potential move has less to do with dissatisfaction in our house and more do to with the fact that we found a house that could be a huge blessing to us.

Except . . . WE didn't find the house!

Through a crazy turn-of-events that only God could orchestrate, Teresa Dodge, a friend of ours who is a Realtor, found this house and talked to us about it. We were very hestitant and talked about it for hours and hours. In the end we realized we don't think we could find a house like this - for the price and space AND in our neighborhood (which we know we want to live in long-term) in the next five years or so. This house is incredibly well-suited for us now and long-term (it has a finishable basement).

And then something else crazy happened . . . within two days of this house going on the market and us being interested in it, some people pledged a generous donation to help us financially and our church decided to increase the amount of money they are giving to families adopting! This means we can adopt our kids without completely draining our savings account! That, in turn, makes us feel more comfortable about buying a house. Seriously! Only God could do this.

After much praying and deliberating, we decided to go for it! We put an offer (contingent on our house selling) on it Saturday and the sellers accepted it Sunday.

NOW TO SELL OUR HOUSE!! We put our house on the market this past Friday. We have had a couple people look at it and someone is coming tomorrow and someone else Sunday. Of course I would like to sell it TODAY so we can get on with moving and get settled in our new house BEFORE our kids come home from Africa. But, clearly God's ways are not my ways! So, we are trusting God that if it is His will for us to move before the kids come, He will allow our house to sell at the appropriate time. If it does not sell by the end of April, we will most likely stay in our house. (At this point it seems our kids could come home around the end of May.)

That said, PLEASE TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT THERE IS A GREAT HOUSE FOR SALE ON MINNETONKA AVENUE IN AMES, IOWA! Here is the official Century 21 listing. You can contact Teresa Dodge (teresa.dodge@century21.com) to come see our house.

Here are all the pictures of our house . . . which, as you know, we JUST completely re-did! You never know God is going to do.

Front closet

Upstairs living room with bamboo hardwood flooringPart of the upstairs living area

View as you walk in the front door (we knocked out a wall between the kitchen and living room about a year ago).

Kitchen
Bedroom 1 upstairs

Bedroom 2 upstairs
Bedroom 3 upstairs
Full bathroom upstairs
Downstairs living room
New added space connected to downstairs living room
View from the new space downstairs

3/4 bathroom downstairs with tile shower

• Bedroom 4 downstairs with egress window

(Cute little boy not included!)
Great shelving/storage in the bedroom closet downstairs
Utility room downstairs
Utility room continued with awesome built-in shelving...lots of storage space. And a laundry shoot (right side of the picture) from bedroom 2 closet. I LOVE the laundry shoot!
A couple notes about our house:

1. It is set up well to rent out the room/bathroom in the basement. There is a separate entrance at the back of our house that goes straight downstairs. We have had renters for the majority of the time we have lived here and it has worked great!

2. Our house doesn't have a garage. However, when I bought this house 6.5 years ago (when I was single), this was a great feature because it meant that I could buy more house space for my limited budget.

Mr. Abram Update

Its been awhile since I posted pictures of Abram. He got a stuffed puppy dog twice the size he is for Christmas and loves it!

"Rock-a-rock-a" in his chair with his monkey from his Momma Amber and his latest obsession: his tractor!

My mom watched Jaida and Abram one night at our house.
Before we went to California we gave Abram a hair cut - a short one! He looks about a year older with his hair so short. He loves playing "boo" in the girls' half closet.
He is a fan of small, cozy places.

His favorite dancing spot. His dancing consists of turning around in circles for minutes at a time.

Syd stayed the night last week and they sported their bath robes!