Still waiting.

Maybe tomorrow I will hear if the bank accepted my offer.  Yeah.  Where have I heard that one before?  I hope it is tomorrow because I am having a garage sale on Saturday and I will sell a bunch of stuff that isn't needed for the new place.  Unless the new place is not the one I hope it to be. Then I might need some of that stuff.  Sigh.  It's all so messy.

In the meantime, kiddo has been fast enough to represent her grade-level girls at the All-Star track meet next week.  Pretty cool.  She's impressed the coaches enough that they want her to play flag football next fall.  Yikes.  Can you just imagine?

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!!

This is my mom's wedding dress.  She wore it to get married in 1959.  Since then, it has quietly stayed tucked away in a cedar chest in the guest room.  Well, it made an appearance at the 50th Anniversary party, but other than that it has had a very small role in my parents' lives.  

Until this past week.

This past week, mom took the dress out of storage, folded it neatly with a note to its new owner, and boxed it to go to Haiti.  You see, there are women in some of the slums of Haiti who are seeking a new start.  They are seeking to follow the Lord which means leaving their lives of prostitution and starting to set a better example for their children.  They are marrying the fathers of those children, setting up households and finding gainful employment.

But most of them have no money for a wedding dress.  Nothing that will help them mark that very special day with all the pomp and celebration it deserves.  Nothing that tells the watching world that they have a fresh start in life, and they are a bride, and that they are loved.

Until now.  

Mom isn't the only one in our church who has donated her dress.  And, like she says, it's about the relationship, not about the dress.  But it still wasn't that easy.  She thought about all the granddaughters- would they want to wear it for their wedding?  No.  Most of them have very different fashion ideas or are the wrong size.  They would do just fine with dresses of their own.  (And I always said I wanted to get married on the beach wearing white jeans, so I was out of the running.)

And so she took a deep breath, made her decision, packed up the dress, and enclosed a note to the new recipient of the dress encouraging her in her new life and wishing her 50+ years of marital happiness- just like she has experienced.

Mom, you never cease to amaze me.  Happy, happy Mother's Day!!!

Short sale is really a LOOOONNNNNGGGG sale

I know "short" means that the owner will get shorted on any sort of profit they might get out of their house, but it is tempting to think of a short sale as a sale that won't take too long.

It actually takes longer to buy a short sale house than a regular house.

Lots and lots and lots of people are involved.  There's more paperwork than you can shake a forest at.
Banks in Texas must be consulted.  Letters must written to convince banks to take offers.

I just passed yet another hurdle on the way to townhome ownership- the signature of the previous owner.  She accepted my offer and has even written to the bank in Texas to ask them to please accept my offer because it might be the only one they will get.  After all, the house has been on the market since last June 6.

So, I might hear back from Texas tomorrow.  Or, Monday.  I hope it is tomorrow.  Makes the weekends go easier.

Here's another hurdle you might enjoy:

This was a practice run.  I wasn't able to get onto the track for pics during the race, so I asked her to show me and she obliged.   She's cool like that.

Dirt Jump

It's really the long jump, but she forgot the name while she was telling me about it, and it came out as the "dirt jump".

Not bad, eh?


And in other news, the bank needs more than my first offer, so I offered what they wanted.  It is pretty much the top of my budget, but it does help me accomplish my goal of downsizing my mortgage and my life.  Mostly.
We'll see what happens tomorrow and what sorts of fees and things they might gouge me with.

And for those of you thinking about a short sale... don't.  Everything takes longer than you think, and working with banks is not nearly as nice as working with regular people.

One down, one to go.

The appraisal of my current house came in exactly at the amount the buyer offered!  Praise the Lord for that one! Without that, I might have had to take a lower offer, or the buyer might have had to back out.

Now I just need Bank of America to accept my offer on the other house.  My agent says it is very likely we will know something by Monday.  Woo-hoo!


On a completely different note, kiddo ran in her first track meet this afternoon.  She did the hurdles, the 400, the high jump, and the discus.  The hurdles.  She's like the shortest kid on the team and she runs hurdles.  Gotta give her props for that.  I couldn't take pictures tonight because I was working at the shot put, but I'll get some pics up for ya after the next meet.

And then there was the time that...

And then there was the time that I posted about waiting and three hours later the guy who is buying my house calls to tell me that they can't get out of their lease in the middle of the month, so I might as well stay till the end of May (2 weeks past the official closing date)- rent free.

Well, that's an answer to prayer.  Now B of A has a little more time to consider and accept my offer and then I won't have to move twice.  Maybe.

And while I was waiting, a dear friend was also waiting- but a different kind of waiting.  She was waiting for the results of her mammogram, and MRI, and biopsy.  Not good.  There will be surgery, and maybe some cell-killing drugs.  And she will spend lots of time waiting.

And while in the grand scheme of things my waiting pales in comparison to hers, in the grander scheme of things, it's all washed out compared to waiting for the ultimate home and the ultimate healing in Heaven.  It's good to wait on our God who is sovereign and all-knowing and infinitely compassionate.

The waiting game

I'm just waiting.  I accepted the offer on my house but I have yet to find out if the guy will get his loan. It all depends on the appraisal which I just found out is tomorrow.  Might take a week to get the results. It needs to be high enough to warrant the offer he gave.
So I'm waiting.

I'm also waiting to hear from B of A about my offer on the townhome.  They are waiting for that appraisal and then they might be able to make a decision.  It would be nice it it were low enough to be near my offer- after all, that was the list price in December.  Maybe they will accept my offer, maybe they will counter-offer.  I'm just waiting.

I'm packing a few boxes here and there, but not the whole house yet because I don't know if I will need to make one move or two, or...?  I'll just wait to get the bulk of the packing done.

I'm going to have a moving sale, but I'm waiting on that as well.  The things I want to sell have no place at the townhome, but if I don't get the townhome I might have a place and a use for them at another house.  I'm just waiting.

For a person who likes to plan and scheme and dream, this is a little weird.  I would love to purchase a few things for the new place, but I have no idea whether I will actually get the townhome I hope to get.  It's not tragic, just weird.  I have my health, the car still runs, kiddo is doing great at school, and God is still God.  I'm not complaining, just explaining that I'm waiting.

Sometimes when I am waiting, it's hard to think of things to write about other than waiting.

One of these days, I'll post some pics of what I did for my 50th birthday.  It was fun.  Betcha can't wait...