Now I Can Relax

I cannot fully explain how hectic the last three weeks have been. Three weeks ago I had accepted the "fact" that our house wasn't going to sell and that we would need to begin job hunting in Michigan since we quit our teaching jobs. Then out of nowhere a lady calls and asks if she can come see our house. We say "sure." She shows up on a Thursday evening, looks around the house, and asks several questions. She had been looking for several months for a house in Saginaw Township - she told us that she had gone through over 50 houses! She was in no hurry to move so she wanted to take her time finding just the right house. As she makes her way around our house I began whispering to my sister-in-law that there is no way this woman is going to buy this house if she has already gone through fifty stinkin' homes! Fifteen minutes later she tells me she wants to buy it, and buy it NOW before somebody else comes along. I couldn't believe it! I called Ben at work and asked him what to do. We were selling by owner so I didn't know how to draw up paperwork and stuff. Ben told me to tell her that he would meet her tomorrow morning to draw up an offical purchase agreement. She left that night begging me not to sell it to anybody before the next morning. She said our house had good karma (spelling Alicia?) and lots of positive energy flowing through it. Maybe what she was really sensing was the Holy Spirit at work! I stood in my kitchen just amazed that she wanted our house so bad. The next morning she put a great offer on our house (more than we expected to get) and we accepted. One week later we got an apartment in Kentucky, and a week after that we were out of our house.
The actual closing of the house was on Friday. Let me just say something here - if you want to sell your home, sell it by owner. We saved thousands of dollars and it was so easy. The title company literally does all of the work for you. It's the way to go! The loan officer said she just couldn't believe how fast everything came together. She said it was unheard of. I sat there thinking "this all came together because God is in control!" We gave the new owner the keys to our house and she gave us a letter. I took the card from her hand and didn't read it until we got in the car. She wrote us a lengthy letter thanking us for selling her the home and promising that she would take great care of it and enjoy it as much as we did. I thought that was very sweet of her to do!
We went "home" that day to finish packing and load up the U-Haul. We have several people show up to help us. The whole time they were loading a few of them kept mumbling that there was "no way" we were going to fit everything in the truck. I was already a little stressed and worried so the comments really discouraging me. They asked me what furniture I wanted to give away and what I wanted to throw to the curb. I went to the back of the house and just started crying. Ben assured me it would all be okay. Amazingly - thanks to the help of a couple of key men - the whole house fit into this U-Haul.
Ben and I spent the night at my sister's on Friday and he left Saturday morning with our brother-in-law Jeff and both of our dads. They unloaded the truck into our new apartment last night. The men, except Ben, will be back today. I am staying in Michigan until Labor Day weekend due to a job commitment. It will be hard being apart for so long, but I know God has a plan and we are so excited!
I hope to post pictures soon of our whole adventure.