Celebrating God's Goodness, Part 1

By now, many of you have heard that we were accepted as tenants finally! What a HUGE answer to prayer! Thank you to so many people who have prayed with us. The hand of God was so evident in this!

This landlord had turned us down because Andrew does not yet have a job (very understandable!). But as of friday when he told us they would like us to be their tenants he said, "My wife & I welcome you with open arms. We don't know why, but we have such a good feeling about you." How God has worked! We pray that we can fulfill their every expectation! And since they live right in back of us, they'll be able to keep a close eye on us :-o !!

We don't have a ton of pics of it from when Andrew had gone up there to check out houses, but here are a few. (I haven't even seen it in person yet!)

We just love the fact that it is a stand-alone house. Almost everything else we looked at was either a townhome, duplex, or apartment. So we are very excited that we don't have to share walls with anyone!

our home sweet simple home
I have to laugh because recently a lot of friends have been posting pics of their new homes and they are really beautiful. As you look at these pics, you might think, hmmm...I'm not sure why they are so excited. :) But we are as thrilled about this home as we would be a brand-new gorgeous home. And I just say - that's a testament to the grace of God!

But there is no doubt that I have some decorating challenges ahead!

Challenge #1 - the place is covered in BLUE carpet.

Now the one thing I don't own anything in is BLUE.

Everything we have is browns, greens, & orange.

For now, I will probably just pretend it's not blue and hope that everyone who comes over is colorblind. :)

our dark green couches will be an interesting blend...

Challenge #2 - pink bathroom. yep, don't own any pink either.

This one I think I will try to minimize by using brown towels & shower curtain.

That shouldn't be too bad.

here's the kitchen.

not quite sure what that border is and I'm a little scared to find out!

(especially since we're renting and I can only change so much :)

definitely put up some bright curtains because this space needs some COLOR!!

here is the basement.

maybe we can throw up a flatscreen & make a cool man-cave.

ok, the flatscreen is not happening.

but maybe this spot has some potential!

Now Andrew - please get a job quick so we can fix all our " design challenges"!!
The run-down of the house is that it is 3-stories & a basement (yeah for good storage space!!) -

hmmm, thankful (??) I still have 2 flights of stairs to constantly run up & down!!

There are 2 bedrooms on the 2nd floor and the 3rd floor is a fully finished attic. This is one thing we are extremely excited about, because though it is one big open space right now, we'll be able to semi-divide it and have plenty of space for Andrew's office & a guest room. So it's almost like a 4-br house!! Such a blessing - we certainly didn't expect that much space.

So we expect lots of friends & family to come visit!! (not so subtle hint...)

Another thing that we LOVE is location, location, location. This street is less than 2 blocks from us, and as you can tell, it is definitely all-urban! We love it. Everything we need is right here on this street - grocer, deli, drug-store, starbucks, restaurants... We are also within walking distance of the rest of our friends who are already living there.

We see spending a lot of evenings just walking & hanging out!

Now this move does not come without taking a huge leap of faith. Yes, Andrew is quitting his job and we are moving unemployed. We believe that this is how God is directing us and because we have seen SO many answers to prayer in this process, we fully believe that God is going to continue to provide and pave the way. We are not going empty-handed completely. We have our savings, but we pray that God will provide before we have to use that all up! And He may choose not to. He may choose for us to go through all that and be literally praying for Him to put bread on our table each day. And if he chooses to do so, it will be good too. We are excited to see how He is going to continue to work.

But please continue to pray with us for Andrew to find a job as soon as possible.We look forward to sharing when that prayer has been answered!
oh yes, almost forgot...We will be loading our truck July 6th (calling all our wonderful, loving, sweet friends :) and heading up to Pitt Tuesday morning, July 7th!! 3 weeks away...and the packing has begun in earnest!