It's official: we're closed!

We closed on our house today at 11:30 a.m. I can't believe it only took 2 1/2 weeks to close on our house......that was a miracle. The realtor said sometimes when you are dealing with something that we had to deal with in our buyer's process (I forget what it was called), it can take up to 45 days. It was neat because we were able to let the buyer know that we hoped this home would be a blessing to her because that was what we were praying for whoever bought it. She said that it has already been a blessing so that was really encouraging.

Now we are praying that Jeremiah's truck will sell. It would be so nice to not have to worry about this while we are down there. Again, hoping that the Lord would bring along the perfect person for this truck.

Next week we are leaving for West Virginia to visit my Aunt Laura & her husband before we leave. Also, they will be taking care of our dog, Tessa, so we will be leaving her down there with them. I am looking forward to visiting with my aunt and seeing where she lives (she lives on an Angus cattle farm) but not so much about saying goodbye to Tessa.

Christmas is quickly approaching and with all that has been going on I have barely had time to reflect on the meaning of this wonderful holiday. As a Christian, I am so thankful for God sending His Son to this messed up world so that He could make a way for us to have a relationship with God. There is no longer that feeling in my heart that something is missing in my life since I asked Jesus into my heart AND decided to live my life for Him. I am forever grateful for His mercy and grace.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas & are able to make the time to celebrate the true meaning behind the holiday!

God Bless!

Time is flying!

We are all moved into Caleb's and it has been so fun hanging out with everyone! I am so thankful we are able to stay out there. I feel very comfortable there and love how homey his old farm house is. A perfect place to spend the holidays!

Last night I spent hours comparing ticket prices from Miami to Lima. I found some that are very reasonable through a Colombian air carrier and we were able to use our American Express reward points that will save us over $400. We are still waiting to see if we will get the free tickets from Indy to Miami. We are praying that this would work out perfectly.

It won't be much longer until we will be boarding the plane to fly out of the U.S......35 days to be exact! I am so excited:)

We are praying that we can sell our truck before we leave. It will just be one less thing we will have to think about. With all the snow we just had we are hoping someone will start searching the papers for a 4x4.

The closing on the house is scheduled for Thursday at noon! I can't believe it, time is flying by!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Inspection & Moving Out!

Yesterday we had the inspection. Everything went well except their was a gas leak at the gas valve in the furnace. The buyer asked that we get it fixed before closing. I called my mom to ask her if she could send over one of their service guys to check it out. Tony said they would do it for free as long as they didn't have to order a part or something.

The service men came today at lunch and tightened a screw or something and said the leak was fixed. Praise the Lord! We are so thankful that it was nothing serious or something we had to pay a lot for. The furnace is very old so it could have been much worse!

Most of our stuff is moved into my aunt Terri's and Uncle Gary's attic & basement. The rest of our stuff is at Caleb's. The stuff at Caleb's is mostly necessities and stuff we will be taking to Peru!

It has been so awesome to see God's hand in everything. Especially now when I look back and read this blog over the past months, I know it was God growing and stretching us. My emotions go from excitement to fear to homesickness! I am seeing now how important prayer is because it is helping me to know that for the past 5 months we have been praying for God's PERFECT will to come about in our lives. Now that we can see that God is opening the door for us to go to Peru we can rest in knowing that we are stepping into God's perfect will for our lives at this point in time.

My prayer is that we would grow tremendously in our relationship with the Lord over the next year. That we would love God more with each breath and desire to reflect the image of Christ in every decision we make. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness!

Appraisal

The realtor called us yesterday to let us know that the appraisal went through okay! Praise the Lord! We are getting ready to pack our things up and decide where we are going to store stuff. My Uncle Gary & Aunt Terri have said we can store some things at their place so we are going to see how much room they have for stuff and decide what we are storing where. I pray for wisdom in deciding which items to keep in storage and what to get rid of.

The inspector is coming tomorrow to inspect the house so I pray all would go smoothly with that. After tomorrow's inspection we will be waiting on the paperwork for closing to go through.

Lord, I pray you would take care of all the details so beautifully that we would see your hand in it. I pray we would find a buyer for our truck before we leave.

Be with us, help us to look to you each morning and throughout the day to give you praise.

Prayers answered & lifted up!

So I can't believe that we are actually going to Peru. It is so exciting. We are trying to remember to live for TODAY and what God is showing us TODAY instead of looking too far ahead. We can't stunt our growth because we are waiting to get to Peru.

I was just talking with Jeremiah and he was talking about what an amazing work God has done in our lives since we stepped out to go to Peru. We have definitely grown stronger in our relationship with one another and with our individual relationships with the Lord.

He said he will never forget seeing me bent over crying because I didn't think we were going to get to go to Peru. We got the offer on our house like 2-3 days later. He couldn't believe I was crying because we weren't going to get to go to a 3rd World country. Sounds strange, huh?!

Jeremiah has been such an encouragement through this whole process. He has been so strong in his faith and someone I could look to and lean on. It has been awesome to see him grow so much in the Lord and so quickly. I am excited to see how the Lord is going to use him and I am so thankful for him.

The appraiser is coming tomorrow to appraise our house. I pray that everything works out okay with the appraisal and the home inspection. Once our house has been appraised, we can start packing and moving our things.

We will be moving into Caleb's house until we leave in January.

For Christmas, my grandma is giving us 2 airplane tickets to Miami and then we can purchase our flights to Lima, Peru from there. She got 2 free tickets for buying $240 worth of Dockers clothes. Then we have $4oo reduction on our tickets through a promotion with our American Express card. If we can get the flight to Miami, then my grandma will be saving us over $900. I pray that we will be able to get a flight to Miami on those dates.

Yesterday, I purchased our health insurance for our trip down there. I found some reasonable rates and feel blessed that the Lord led me to them. That saved us like $330.

We put an ad in the Journal Review to sell our truck so hopefully someone will buy it before we leave. I pray that the Lord would bring along the perfect person to buy the truck and that it would be a blessing for them. We are willing to sell it below Blue book value so it would be a good deal for someone.

Offer, Counter-offer, SOLD!

Wow! I can't believe this.....but I can. We sold our house yesterday evening. Our house sold for more than we were asking and our closing date is set for December 21st. December 21st is the day that our non-refundable deposit is due to the college. God has definitely been stretching us and I am so thankful for His faithfulness. It is times like this that you wish you could go back and do things better. All the worry & impatience is such a waste when you can simply trust that His will WILL come to pass no matter what that may be.

I can't believe that God would actually want to use us. Praise the Lord!

Father, thank you for being so faithful! We are so humbled that you would choose to use us. I pray you would be glorified in our lives. Help us to realize that we are merely pilgrims passing through. Give us strength to endure whatever you have for us.

Help us to live day by day, moment by moment in Your everlasting love.

I trust that everything else that needs to be done before we leave would fall into place. THANK YOU!
In Jesus' name, Amen!

Peace & the 2nd Showing!

The lady that came to look at our house last Tuesday is coming back to look at it again. We'll see what happens. I think I really am okay this time if we don't sell our house. I have a true inner peace that whatever God wants is best and whatever happens is His will. I've just been praying that regardless of whether or not God opens the door for us to go to Peru, that He would be glorified in and through our lives. I truly do want the Lord's perfect will for our lives and if that is not Peru then I don't want anything to do with it.

Jeremiah & I went to church last evening and were very encouraged by the message. Dave went through Psalm 37-39 and spoke a lot about trusting in the Lord & delighting in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our hearts. It encouraged us that He did put the desire to go to Peru on our hearts and that it is not a fleshly desire, so we need to trust in Him and His will will come to pass.