Here's to bittersweet endings, and new beginnings!

Breathe....breathe...breathe...its been a crazy past few months, and I find myself closing my eyes reminding myself to just breathe.  Thank you yoga for learning the importance of that!  I say this in a great, crazy, fun way.  April came around as it always does, and I was gearing up for our church's annual Easter Egg Hunt.  The day was busy and fun and full of kids excited for the upcoming arrival of the Easter bunny.  What I didn't realize it was bringing, was also a huge change in the Randolph household.
The day before, Lance had lunch with a friend who does real estate on the side.  He told Lance about the 'perfect house' for our family that we had to see.  We took that with a grain of salt...until we saw the pictures.  We ended up seeing it the next day.  I woke up that morning, thinking of the details of the egg hunt and our Easter plans.  Little did I know, that by the end of the day, while eating cheese dip and sipping on margs at our favorite mexican spot, we would be planning a move for our family and all the details that holds.
We have talked about moving for years, but it just hasn't felt like the right time yet.  We have lived in our current house for almost 11 years now.  This is our starter house that we never anticipated staying in more than 5 years.  And while I am beyond excited about our move, I have loved the house that we are in.   As most big changes in life are, this is a bittersweet move.  This is the house where Lance carried me over the threshold when we got married.  We brought all of our babies home in this house.  All of our milestones so far, have happened right here in this house.  Learning to crawl, learning to walk, learning to ride a bike, and most recently, learning to pump their legs on a swing.  This home has been our guinea pig for home improvement projects...most of which taught us that we work better having separate tasks, rather than sharing the same!!

The most recent five years have been a struggle between being frustrated for not having enough space, to learning to be content in appreciating the space that we have.  Over the past several years, many friends have moved to their "forever homes", and I have prayed and prayed for patience that when the time was right, we would find our "forever home" as well.  I have prayed for contentment in the place where we are right now.  That we are where we are meant to be, and I truly believe that the timing of things always works out the way it is supposed to.  Had we rushed and moved several years ago, we never would have found this house and would have settled for something not quite right.
I remember sitting at that dinner table discussing if this was the right time, weighing the pros and cons and thinking...'this is going to be a lot of work...its probably good that we are naive to the fact that we don't really grasp how many projects this is going to entail to make this move happen'.
None of this could have possibly happened without the help of both of our parents.  They are the true example of selfless love for their children.  They have worked tirelessly packing, cutting down trees, painting, and fixing a seemingly endless list of small aesthetic projects. 
I can't believe how smoothly this has all gone.  We went into this, with a leap of faith, that it would somehow work.  We worked and worked to get our house show-ready, and finally the day came where we put it on the market.

 

The timing was perfect, it went on the market on a Friday, we had two showings on Saturday.  For the second showing that day, we headed to the Varsity to enjoy a frosted orange.  Just as we pulled into the parking lot, Lance's phone rang.  It was our real estate agent calling to say that we had an offer!!!  What??  Pinch me, is this really happening?  We had a vacation planned for that week, where we were leaving on Monday.  I had just hoped for a lot of showings that week while we were gone, but kept telling myself not to get my hopes up for an offer right away. 

Selling a house is no joke, it is a lot of ups and downs with negotiating contracts, waiting on inspection details, waiting on appraisals, hashing out the details, but it is working out.  Our closing dates between our two houses are one week apart, I could not have planned it to work out better if I tried.  

This has been the most nerve wracking decision of our lives because there were so many details that we could not control.  The fact that things have gone so smoothly has made me feel comforted in knowing that this is all a part of the master plan for our family.  I can't wait to see what lies ahead for our family and the new memories that will be made in our new house.  We have already met some new neighbors and were even invited to an end of school year party in the new neighborhood.  That alone made us feel welcomed and excited to be a part of fun, close-knit community.  We are one week away from closing and the chaos of the actual move.  I'm hoping the hard part is over, but ready for this new beginning for us!