Our New Home

The first time we drove to the house, I snapped this shot. 

This is the back of the house. While I was walking down at the lake, I took this picture of the back.

Last March we moved to Texas. Yay! We love Texas. This has been a fabulous move. We are so happy to be here. We all feel like this is where we have been headed to our whole lives. We are proud to say we are Texans. 

Last December Travis and I made the decision that it was time for our family to get out of California. We had been living in California for 8 years and I was finally to the point where I liked the people there and my house, but it was still hard to live in a small town and away from so many things.  There were other issues that were involved with our move- personal issues with people being cruel to my kids for leaving the church- but those issues were not the reason we left, they were just the final straw that convinced us that we needed to leave. So, we started looking for dental practices in Texas and found our dream practice. We were so in love with the practice and the town. It felt so right. All the pieces fell into place quickly and before we knew it, we were leaving California in a moving van.  

We got to Texas and moved into a rental home- we were using all our savings and resources to buy our new practice and to renovate it. So we thought it would be smart to wait a year to buy a house... plus is would be good to get to know the area before deciding where we wanted to permanently settle. So, we moved into our rental house. It was quite the adventure. It rained and thundered the whole week and we forgot to turn on the power before we moved in, so it was dark and cold and no hot showers.... but we survived. We still laugh about that week with the kids, remembering the first horrible week of Texas. Thankfully, things could only get better after that!

So, Travis started his practice and it just took off. He was loving it and doing well. The kids started school and loved our neighborhood with all the kids their ages to hang out with. Everything seemed to be going well.... except that I HATED our rental home. There was so much wrong with that home, it was miserable. But I just kept thinking that it would only be for a year, I could survive... it was hard. I didn't want the kids to have friends come over, because the house was such a terrible place. But the kids LOVED the location because there were kids EVERYWHERE in the neighborhood. They all had great friends that they could walk to or ride bikes to. It was perfect. So, Travis and I knew as we started to look for homes that we would have to stay in that area, the kids all had best friends right there. So, as we looked in the neighborhood, we just weren't finding any houses big enough for our large family. After searching for houses, we thought maybe we should build. There were lots for sale in the neighborhood right across the street... it wouldn't be too far from the kids's friends. So, we got a realtor and went looking at property right across the street. The neighborhood was beautiful and wonderful and we fell in love. As we were leaving the neighborhood, the realtor asked us if we wanted to see this house. He said it was going to go on the market on Monday- this is the first and , so far, the only home in this neighborhood to go on the market.  I jumped at the chance to see it because building a home sounded like a total nightmare to me. So, he went to go get keys and we headed looked at the pool while we waited.... and we fell in love! The pool. The lake. The land. It was perfect, on the outside. When we walked through the front doors, we both looked at each other and said "wow! I think this is our home!". We both fell so in love with this home, but we were worried about qualifying for a loan with our savings depleted and having just started a new practice. I was sure that we would not be able to qualify for the home. The realtor encouraged us to put an offer on and then see if it worked out. We told him we wanted to talk to the owner to let him know our full situation before putting an offer on the table. The owner came over and we told him we loved it, but we were not sure if we would qualify... he told us to make an offer and he would wait to put it on the market.   And, to spare you all the details, THREE WEEKS LATER we moved into our new home! We felt like so many things had to fall into place to bring us to this home and we were led each step of the way. Just like we always have been led. We felt like we were led to California so find our daughter and son, Max and Annie. Now we are led to Texas and we are excited to see what our life here brings us. So far, we have not been disappointed- just the opposite. Things have been amazing.