We Are Moving!

For about two years now, Anthony and I have been talking about moving.  We found and moved into our current apartment more than 5 years ago, before kids.  We have been feeling like we would really like a little more space for our growing kids and something on ground level with a yard that our kids have access to.  So, we have been casually keeping an eye out for something. 

For the last 5 yrs we have lived in the top apartment of this house

The problem is that we really don't want to leave our village for a number of reasons...the closeness to base, Alethia's kindergarten is here, enjoying the quaintness of the German community, access to great forest trails.  However, not very many rental places come open in our village and when they do, they go fast!  So, we just stayed put and moved a few things around to try to make it more comfortable.

Our Village

Well, this year, between tension with our neighbors (over the amount of noise our kids make) and continued feelings of growing needs going unmet, we finally decided to get serious about finding another place.  In March we began checking housing lists daily and viewing places.  We reluctantly broadened our search to outside our village.  We spent about a month looking seriously before spring break.  With Anthony out-of-town for a week for our big high school outreach camp and me and the kids out-of-town to a friend's house, we took a break on our search.

We all got home late Friday night (two weeks ago) and were exhausted from our travels.  On Saturday morning we decided to start checking housing lists again and found an apartment in our village that was just posted.  We saw it, spent the day thinking about it, saw it again, spent a day praying about it and went back on Monday to sign our contract. 

The New House: not a great pic, I'll get another one up soon!

So....we get our keys this weekend!!!  We have until May 15th to be out of our old place, so we are doing a gradual move.

I just have to say...PRAISE THE LORD!!!  We found a place in our village, even closer to our friends and to Alethia's kindergarten, that has all the "musts" on our lists.  Our new landlord is an older German woman who lives in the apartment above ours and who is really excited about having us and who loves the kids.  Already, as we were dropping-off boxes last night, she was playing a game with them.  We will really get a chance to work on our German with her since she speaks very little English.

Well, as you may be able to tell, I'm really excited about this!  Alethia was not sure how she felt about moving, but after last night, she said to me, "Mama, I'm excited about our new house!" 

So, if you think of it, please say a little prayer for us as we get everything moved and set-up house.  Please pray for God's provision as there are a lot of little costs that add up and make moving so expensive!  But mostly, praise God for his timing and grace as we get into a new place just in time for the kids to have a yard to play in all summer long!