Quick Update

Please forgive the brevity of this blog posting--and especially the lack of photos. We took some at Thanksgiving with my Aunt Rosalie and Uncle Brian, but since we're in the midst of moving and will leave shortly for an overnight visit to my Gramma Pat (that's her name to us kids--no, it's not misspelled...), it just seemed too overwhelming to upload pictures.

We have purchased our appliances (stove, fridge, washer, dryer) and are excited about that. We must be grownups...what kid gets excited about a new washer/dryer? We've also made some other purchases in anticipation of having our own space again. Whoo hoo!

On Monday, the bank did an appraisal of the house we intend to purchase. We'll hear back on Friday if the property qualifies for our loan. However, because the appraisal was a tad late, we may end up homeless for a few days if the closing can't take place on December 14. We're looking into moving in early and renting for a few days.

We're getting ready and saying our goodbyes--always the hardest part of moving. Part of living on seminary, however, is the fluidity of the residents. If we didn't leave now, many more of our friends would be leaving us come spring so it helps with the melancholy of it a little.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving (we certainly have much to be thankful for!) and an early Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!

Dan's job update

The congregation at Fairmont Evangelical Covenant Church in Minnesota met Dan, heard him preach and then voted on whether to ask him to be their senior pastor. The majority voted yes, to offer Dan a call to pastor the church! He accepted and will begin during the first week or two in January! Whoo hoo!

We stayed an extra day in town to look at homes. My mom had picked up the girls and brought them back up to the city so Dan and I could get more done in Fairmont. We looked at five homes and put an offer in on one. It's a little smaller than we had wanted but is definitely in our price range and is move-in ready which is nice. There were some that were far from ready!

There is only one bathroom, but there is a second toilet in the basement (do NOT read that as a second bathroom--trust me--it's only a toilet, but it works in case of emergency!) and Dan is pretty handy. He may be able to put in a sink down there. With four young girls, two of whom still need to be pottytrained, you NEED a second toilet.

So we'll find out if our offer was accepted on the house in the next day or two. We will move from Chicago the weekend of December 12 and hopefully close on the house on Dec. 14 or 15.

No pics, but at least you're now in the know! Thank you so much for your prayers! We all made it through the two days of meeting people and being on good behavior--which is very exhausting! and we look forward to being part of that church. We enjoyed our time there with all the folks very much.