More on that opportunity we had...

Thanks a million, all ye faithful readers (whose numbers I apparently grossly underestimated), for the prayers!

We are moving to a new house!!!!!

Well, newer, anyway. The one we have was built in 1900 and the one we're getting was built in 1925.

It's a long crazy story, but basically, an acquaintence of mine was selling her house, to no avail. It happens to be a craftsman-style home, the type of architecture we really love. However, we thought it would be out of reach financially...until my husband found out we could get 3.99% financing, which made the mortgage payment just a little higher than what we have right now. Initially, I thought we'd really suffer in 2007, as our belts are pulled pretty tight as it is, but then I was reading about this financial expert who actually suggested that people consider removing money from an IRA to pay off revolving debt because the big credit card companies are buying up your accounts and jacking up interest just because they can, not because you were late or anything, which had already happened to us once. So I had this very small Roth IRA that we hadn't contributed to for a while (in favor of a different plan), and we decided to cash that out so we could just about pay off one of our remaining 2 cards (having paid off one already earlier this year). With some creative eBaying and my husband's willing sacrifice of some musical year, we can get out of enough credit card debt to total the differences in mortages. So, while our budget will still be tight, we'll be done with credit cards and only have a 3.99% mortgage, which is a LOT better situation than we've been in...ever. It's a very complicated answer to prayer, but there it is.

Other boons: We're gaining about 850 sq. ft of living space. The basement has a room that used to be an efficiency apartment, which with some work will be an ideal studio space for my husband. Four bedrooms!!! (Although the girls will continue to share until one hits puberty and they can't live together any more.) An extra half bathroom!!!! A play/recreation/arts&crafts/sewing "great room" up in the finished and sky-lighted attic. We can actually host the family Christmas party this year!!!!!! A fireplace flanked with bookcases that will look marvelous with stockings hung from it for Christmas! A nicer neighborhood. Boiler heat!!! (Great for folks with dust allergies, like my husband and middle child.) A back door!! (I really don't have one, just a side door that is stuck closed, so the kids have to go out the front to get to the back). More closets! A six-foot privacy fence that the dog can't jump over (she hops our 42" chain link like its nothing).

Oddity: Well, it's in a different parish. And I like that other parish just fine, but I like our current parish's school better. We told Zooey and Edyn we're keeping them in the current school for the rest of the year and will reassess. We do plan to visit the other parish's school and go to some events and such, but I already don't want to switch. It's a fine school, to be sure, but I have some stupid issues that I really need to overcome. First, it's not very multi-ethnic, and I'd rather have my kids in a school were more cultures were represented among the student body. Second, that parish includes a chunk of the southern part of town that has more money. Where my kids go to school, they don't look "poor," they look like everybody else. But in that other school, it won't be long before the difference is apparent, and frankly, I hated experiencing that myself in high school and college, and I don't really relish the thought of my kids feeling that way. Thirdly...well, Zooey, to be honest, is kind of a geeky kid. At his school now, everybody appreciates him and loves him for what he is. The upper classmen look out for him and recommend books to him (he is famous for constantly reading), his classmates are fond of him, the teachers know and understand his foibles and seem to think that even his short-comings have silver linings. And okay, MAYBE the other school's upperclassmen would learn to like Zooey, too. And MAYBE his classmates will grow fond of him and not oust him because he's so different from them. And MAYBE the teachers will understand him and find ways to challenge him that are appropriate. But I don't know that and the mommy in me would rather keep a good thing going than change it.

Besides, our current pastor has been asking us to become more involved in leadership. I think he feels like he needs us to help, and I want to respond to that because it's so much harder to get people to be involved in the downtown parish, with lots of renters and lots of elderly people. The new house is only a few blocks off the cut-off line, so it's possible we could get permission to stay registered where we are. The other parish has a very active community and doesn't need us, so it would be no loss to them. It is a great community, and I'm sure I would love becoming part of it, but I love our current parish community too, and I don't necessarily want to move away from that.

Egads, it's late -- I'm rambling, sorry. I need to go to bed.

In the meantime, thanks for praying for us, and if you feel like you could pray for us to quickly get our current house on the market and quickly find a seller, that would be great, too.

Also, many blessings to my friend Dina who was married to a wonderful guy named Damian today in a very lovely ceremony (coincidentally at the parish we will be moving to!). May God bless them with a long and happy marriage.

--Sparki