a hodge podge

We closed on our house yesterday. We are now official homeowners. (How did this happen? 2 kids and a mortgage!)

Even Emma seemed to understand and all day was so relieved to have “home”. I only moderatley panicked before, during and after closing. I can’t take it back to the store if I change my mind! BUT we are excited.

After the closing, Daniel and I first came to the house before getting the girls from my parents and THIS was posted on the windows:

What!? They were warning stickers stating the house was under surveillance and demanding that a Certificate of Occupancy must be obtained before moving in.

WHAT?!!?

The stickers were signed and dated for yesterday. Posted the day we purchased our first home. Talk about immediate stress. We literally only owned the home for minutes and there was already a problem. I called the number posted, and prayed in the Spirit while on hold. The unhelpful man told me to call a different number. No answer there. I call back to Mr. Unhelpful. Another number is given. They, also, are unable to give me answers but think the inspector who posted the signs might know something. He has one office hour per day and is unreachable. But where and who I question out loud, has my answers. What is wrong with my house and why weren’t we notified or red flagged in an inspection?

The inspectors secretary explains that he gets all of his orders from the city and it is the city that will have all the information I need. She offers me a phone number….it’s the first phone number that I called twice. To my delight, someone else answers. I explain my situation and she takes my name and address and the name of the inspector.

“Oh really? He just walked in for a meeting, please hold……holding…..He’s says it’s your lucky day. Take the stickers down. The city only wanted to start monitoring it because it has been vacant!”

Thank You, Jesus.

Once we were given permission to enter our own home, we photoed our first keys and unlocking. Daniel also carried me over the threshold and proceeded to walk around the house saying “That’s my toilet, that’s my light fixture, that’s my ugly kitchen floor”…and then he did “snow angels” in the carpet. (Why not!? It’s our house, right!?)

We brought the girls back took our first family photo and showed them their room. Emma was so excited she was jumping and dancing in her no-longer-gold room.  

We had a wonderful dinner last night with our families and our pastors. We had subs on a blanket in the living room floor and prayed for God’s blessing and protection over our home. Daniel also enjoyed his first game of pool with his brother.The four of us “camped out” together on the living room floor last night.

Today we were busy painting. We have a crew lined up for Saturday to help us move in all our belongings.

It’s good to be home.

Our Anna Bear is One today. I am in awe.

my momma. She has a blog now. Won’t you please visit and give her a warm welcome to blog world?

We are only a half a day into our trip and are having a great time! We are currently just outside of the city and are getting ready to pack up and head into Chicago. So far we:

• had a great time in the car (the girls slept a good part of the drive)
• ate traveling snacks
• saw a Muslim family praying to Mecca at a truck stop
• took Anna swimming for the first time
• let Emma swim “by herself” with floaties for the first time (she LOVED it!! we left go of her and she started giggling uncontrollably!!)

Here are some pictures!

Yesterday we decided to visit Chicago for Memorial Day Weekend. Daniel has both Friday and Monday off so we’ll leave tomorrow night. Sunday morning we’ll visit either Willow Creek or Bill Winston’s church. I am VERY excited for our vacation.

To give the moms a break Daniel is leading worship on Sunday for the first time in a looooooong time (since our church closed in ‘06). The girls were helping him practice. Emma was helping strum and Anna was organizing his music.

Note: Due to a lack of color on WordPress I will, from now on, be changing the color of my text and adding pictures with each post that may or may not be relevant to my writing…but is relevant to the addition of color. This one, unfortunately, is black and white but is too appropriate to not use.

I’ve allowed myself to lose my joy over the past couple of years. Overall, I have been fine day to day but every so often it would hit me and I would have a mini-crisis. I would be overwhelmed by the fact that I don’t have any close friends locally (closer than 45 minutes), that I didn’t have a car and I felt stuck at home, that I felt like we didn’t have a clear direction for our future but knowing it was something important.

As of late, it seems that I have been on a God-ordained, outside of my control, course of discovering what happiness really is. Some or most of this maybe seem silly, immature or plain old ridiculous, but I wanted to put this out there because it is real and because I am thankful. I thought that when I got a car I would be able to go places, have variety, see friends and thus solve my problems. Don’t get me wrong, having this car is great, but it has only reminded me of the friends that are not there. (It also reminded me of how much work it is to take two babies out to do anything!)

This is where I will sound shallow and misguided: With or without realizing, I would like to shop if I was feeling blue. (Disclaimer: I do not have piles of new items and hidden credit card bills…I’m not that far off center!). I recently became aware of this tendency and also of the lack of any lasting satisfaction (no kidding, right?).

I was flipping through a book today and read these powerful words spoken by Abraham Lincoln:

Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

 I read these words and thought to myself:

Snap out of it!

I have a wonderful family, a loving and supportive extended family, incredible friends, a great church, many, many physical blessings…and Jesus who has given me salvation, peace and has promised promises that are more than I could dream up. There is nothing in my life to be unhappy about.

The other part of this quote really has my wheels turning as well: Happiness is not a destination. I, of course, know this. Although, I seemed to have forgotten. Happiness will not be when we are in full time ministry, more involved with missions or have the greatest friends living next door. I was suffering from severe greener grass syndrome. I remembered today the blessings from God. My girls will never be these amazing ages again. We will never have this chapter of our lives back…so we need to live this chapter with fullness.

I’ve been on this journey before to differing degrees but am so thankful that Jesus desired to guide my journey of happiness and do a deeper work in my heart.

…and Anna found it. Ooops.

Emma gets stir crazy and I can relate (it must be genetic) so when I saw the thermometer outside read 60+ this morning, I made the executive decision to head to the park with the girls. There is nothing quite like the I’m-so-gitty-I-can’t-control-my-giggles smile on a two year old at the park (especially the first couple times of spring). Priceless.

After the park (sorry this is redundant for eDaniel readers…what can I say? I was here first, so you’ll just have to read double sometimes) it was as if our neighbors came out of hibernation. They were all in their front yards playing and talking. There are at least three other 2-3 year olds in a 3 house radius. The families described themselves as “front yarders who all share toys and play”. Neighbors were walking up to us saying “Oh, you’re Daniel and Danielle,(yeah….how do you know that?!). so nice to meet you. Your names won’t be hard to remember (Almost EVERY time we meet someone new say that but yet somehow people don’t remember!) ” Turns out a family we grew up knowing from church is about 3 houses away and they warned everyone about us. Our street ends at a golf course fence and every 4th of July they do amazing fireworks. Well, I guess here, it’s like a huge block party. They all sit at the end of the road, bbq, and play. I think it will be a fun summer. The extrovert in me is Luh-ov-ing this (now…if we can just get the basement to stop stinking like cat peepee).