we bought a house!!

Remember the house break-up we had in July? We eventually got over it and moved on. Well, not literally. We decided to stay put in Holladay and figured we would wait until spring to find another one. We weren't about to buy a house before having another baby. Plus, since we were month-to-month on rent, we were really not in any hurry to find something.

Brandon was doubtful that we would ever find something because he kind of has a picky wife. :)

I remember hearing a story years ago from Sheri Dew. Her friend had asked her to go look at a house with her. After looking through it, her friend asked Sheri to say a prayer for them. In her prayer, Sheri said, "Please bless them to have this house work out, or to find something better." I've always remembered that story, as it is so applicable to many life situations. Sometimes we think we know what we want and what is best for us, but more often than not Heavenly Father knows that there is something better out there for us. And if we allow Him to, he will direct us to find that something better.

That has exactly what has happened to us. While we thought the house in Bountiful was the perfect house, we have been blessed to find something so much better. Through this whole process (and the house hunt started back in February, fyi) we have made a short list of must-haves, a nice-to-have list, and then of course there were those extra things we would never even dream of having. So each house we have looked at we have compared it to our lists. Some measured up on the nice-to-have list, but fell short on the must-haves. We found complete fixer-uppers, dream houses, and some in between. But we were waiting for that something better.

And we found it. 3 weeks after Evelyn was born. Brandon's mom had been visiting for the day and asked what we wanted for Christmas. I said, "a house," totally joking. But it was that same night that I was searching online and found IT. There were only a few photos, but from the description it sounded like it had all of our must-haves. So we went and looked at it the next day. We were blown away. To find something in our price range with not only the musts, but so many extra little things made us really excited. We put in an offer that day and it was accepted on Halloween.

So house stuff consumed us all of November. We officially closed the day before Thanksgiving-- a minor miracle. We are so excited!! We feel so grateful that something better worked out for us. And we know that God had his hand in all of this.

What we've learned through all of this: stay true to what you know you want. It is out there. And it will eventually happen--and happen much better than you could ever imagine.

our first family photo on our new front porch of our new house.