What a break!

Wow! I am so sorry for the lapse in blogging! I can't believe it has been so long since the last update.
So, let's start from the beginning.
We officially sold our house April 27th. We spent our final weekend in the house packing while the kids relished the time with the neighbor girls. Our plan was to fully move out by Sunday night, then come by Tuesday morning to put out trash/recyclables. By Sunday afternoon I was uncertain if we would really meet the goal to move out by that evening, but it all worked out. In addition, we had the opportunity to meet the buyers. They came by with the wife's parents, hoping to show them around. They are a nice couple and I know that house is perfect for them. I have been over there/texted with them a few times since they moved in. I really thought I would be extremely emotional about moving out of my house, but it was not as emotional as I anticipated.
Since we moved out, we have been living with my parents. We thought from the get go that this would simply be a quick stay. We anticipated having our new house within a month at most, so we packed 2 weeks worth of clothes for everyone. Ha! We were so wrong! It has been 4 1/2 months of living here at my parents house, but now I can say that the end is in sight!
The offer that we put on the foreclosure fell through. While we were quite sad about that, we know that that is not the house that God had for us.
So, we continued to look at houses and toyed with the idea of buying land and building.
I was constantly checking real estate sites looking for new houses/land and was getting quite upset at the lack of houses/land that were going on the market.
Why were we not finding anything?!?!
We have been with our Realtor to see many houses and unfortunately they all fell short.
So, we again discussed buying land and building a house. We played around with the numbers and found out that we could definitely build a house. B really wanted to buy at least 5 acres so we would be able to have some livestock.
We found 5 acres in an area that we really liked and put an offer on it. It was accepted, but when we went to look at the land we noticed that it was pretty sloped. We went to a few of the neighbors houses and talked to them about drainage issues. One of the neighbors was very forthcoming and shared that just a few lots down from the land that we liked flooded quite a bit in bad rains. That made me uncomfortable. There were also 15 acres for sale on the opposite side of this land, and the land in those acres did not slope as much as this 5 acre property did. The price for the 15 acres was just a little under triple what we were going to be paying for the 5 acre lot. I told B exactly that, and ultimately let him decide which land to purchase because the whole thing was just overwhelming me. So, the week after that B shared with me that we had put an offer on the 15 acres of land. After a few days, we learned that the seller of the 15 acres accepted our contract!
So, we are set to close on our 15 acres of land 3 weeks from now!!!! I know that this gift of land is from the Lord. The land had been on the market, originally I believe, for about 2 years. Aside from that, B offered a little more than double what we did on the 5 acres and the buyer accepted without any counter offers.
Once we had a signed copy of the contract we began fervently working with Jason, owner of DFW Creative Homes. He has helped us throughout the entire search for land, going with B to different properties to give us his opinion on land.
Last week I drove out to North Fort Worth to the architect/engineer's business to sort through house plans. I was hesitant to drive out there as it because the traffic out there is horrible. After looking through tons of house plans (a stack of papers about 1 1/2 inches tall) I decided to stick to the preliminary plan that had been drawn up for us. I drove home in the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine...not fun! But at least we knew what the layout of our house was going to look like. After some changes we now definitely have what the inside of the house will look like done! YAY!
Today, B sent me an email from Jason that shows what the outside of the house will look like as well. I can't believe how fast this is coming along!
If all continues to go well, we will be in our new house by the time the kids get out of school for winter break! What better way to spend school vacation than in your new home! I am giddy with excitement!