Well, I certainly was excited to have the opportunity to stay in my beloved house a little longer and continue our search in MS for a new house. After our house was on the market again, it was shown approximately fifteen times during the next three days. So I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised when our agent called last Monday saying we had another offer. I was in MS when I got the call. It sounded almost too good to be true. We received a full price offer in cash! Wow! Our agent faxed the purchase agreement to me at the hotel, and I nearly choked when I saw that the buyers wanted to close on February 12! That was our original closing date on the other offer and only two weeks away! We accepted the offer and asked that the closing be moved to the end of February. It wasn't until Wednesday that we found out the buyers really wanted to close on the 12th. Because we felt we couldn't have a more perfect offer, we relented. I was okay until Seth said, "That's a week from this Monday." I had been thinking about it as two weeks from this past Monday, which sounded much better to me.
When I returned home on Wednesday and finally had time to sit down at the computer that night, I can't even describe how overwhelmed I was. I felt so helpless. I really did not see how I could get everything together enough to be out of our house in 12 days. So I sent an email prayer request to my beloved family and friends - prayer warriers - and then slept no more than two hours that night because I just stayed awake praying. It is absolutely amazing to me how things just started falling into place on Thursday morning.
I woke up rested - even with only a couple of hours of sleep - and so peaceful. I arranged to meet with a relocation specialist on Friday to get an estimate for packers and movers. I didn't know this until he came to our door, but I knew him. In my former HR days at a nation-wide mortgage company, I worked with him to arrange our company's relocation packages. I had contacted this particular relocation company based on a recommendation from my sis-in-law (and I didn't have time to gather several estimates and choose the best). At the time I made the appointment, I only knew that "Joe" was going to meet with us. I had a fleeting thought that it could possibly be him, but I dismissed it as too good to be true because he worked for another company. And just think - God had been planning it all along!
I immediately felt better when I saw Joe because I knew he would take care of us. In less than an hour, we had the estimate, and he was able to secure arrangements for everything to be packed and moved by our closing date. I was also able to find a storage unit in Brandon to accommodate our stuff until we can find a new house. Although I'm still overwhelmed at what has to happen between now and Monday, I just know that God's hand is going to see us through. I'll admit that things haven't exactly happened the way I'd hoped they would, but I realize that God has a bigger plan.
Precious Mason really has no idea what is going on. I don't know that he is going to appreciate coming home on Friday after the packers leave to find that all of his toys are in boxes. But I'll bet he's really going to enjoy staying at his PawPaw and MawMaw's for awhile. They kept him last week while I went house hunting. They picked him up at our house after church. After he was buckled in his car seat, I was doing the usual "be-a-good-boy-have-a-good-time-I-love-you-kiss-kiss-hug-hug" that all mommy's would do, and he reached out and pushed me away! He could hardly wait for that door to close so he could be on his way to his PawPaw's house.
We were outside playing this afternoon, and he was pulling his wagon all around. I was following behind him. Images of the moving truck pulling out of our driveway loaded with all of our furniture and belongings crossed my mind, and I could see myself just standing at the end of the driveway watching it disappear down the road. And then I could see little Mason hauling his toys off in his red wagon and saying goodbye to our house. That's why I took this picture.