Our Journey to Birmingham

I haven't written on the blog for so long mainly because so much has been going on. This will probably be a long, detailed post but I don't want to forget the memories of this big event in our lives.  Once we got home from vacation, we hit the ground running to get ready for our move.  There have definitely been some ups and downs with this move but after 6 months of our family being separated, it feels so good to be together again. 

The first 4 months of Ryan being with his new job weren't too bad because the girls had school, I had bible study, and we had activities.  Once the summer hit, we had nothing going on and it got rough.  I missed Ryan like crazy and so did the girls.  We decided to start getting serious about looking for a house.  I went to Florida to visit my family in early June and while I was gone, Ryan went and looked at a house that he thought we might like.  It definitely needed some work but was in the neighborhood we wanted to be in (mainly because of the school we want Emma Catherine to go to next year), and it was a good deal.  What we didn't realize was that the owner of the house was a notorious lawyer/politician in Jefferson County who almost single-handedly put the county a huge amount of debt.  Needless to say, he is not a really nice man and he was difficult to work with, and he wasn't even living in the house.  At some point he fled to Florida.  The house has been on and off the market for 3 years so you would think he would want to sell it, but he didn't make it easy on us. 

Eventually, and thankfully he did come off the price and we were able to work out the specifics.  The house did/does need some work though so as soon as we closed in July, Ryan and I spent that weekend and the next 2, ripping up carpet in the basement and then painting the whole basement and getting new carpet put in. We then moved on to painting the girls' rooms and starting on the living room.  Our goal was just to get as far as we could before the movers were coming.  We definitely couldn't have done it without help from my all my family and also our best friends in Chattanooga.   

We definitely still have a lot of projects to do but I do really like our house.  I like our quiet street and our shaded lot.  The girls are seeming to adjust pretty well.  Emma Catherine had a hard time at the beginning because of leaving her friends but lately has seemed to understand that this is our new home, and that we will make new friends.  I think it will help when she starts preschool after labor day.  We visited a church Sunday and they both did well and were happy.  I am definitely ready for some consistency in our lives so them starting preschool, me starting back with Bible Study Fellowship, and us finding a church home will all help that. 

I've left out a lot but that's okay.  I'll be back soon for more posts about our new home/life.  Here's a picture of our new house.