Our House, in the Middle of Our Street...

My dear friend Beth told me a pretty remarkable story about how their prayers were answered when searching for a home several years ago, despite all her efforts to find one. After many failed attempts by Beth to secure a home, the perfect place was handed to them on a silver platter. She reminded me of how she could have saved all that time and energy had she just listened to the Spirit telling her to be patient. Or at least that is what I learned from her experience.

I thought a lot about her story as I spent the entire summer looking for a place to live. I looked online for several weeks before we moved into my brother's basement, sending my siblings to check out the promising places. We even applied to two places prior to being here. After we got here I lost track of how many homes we looked at. I am sure far more than most people look at when trying to buy a home. Probably around 30+. And we were just looking for a rental?!?

The market in Utah is a bit on the crazy side, like nothing I've experienced before. Several people would be looking at a home at the same time, then racing to get in their application first. Kind of makes you want to go all Tanya Harding on them.

You found yourself in two situations depending on whether it was an individual landlord looking for a tenant or a property management company. If it is the landlord they will collect all the applications (the one that disclosed how many they actually had was 13) and then pick the best one. So a self-employed artist with four children would totally be on the top of your list right?!?

If it was a property management company they would just take the first application that was approved. So if the home had been listed online for more than 6 hours, forget about it. It turns out they don't really care if you are a respective family with great rental history if the 5 college students without jobs got to the house first. I am sure those who are hiring these property managers are thrilled.

Anyway we ended up applying for 6 homes. The entire time God was whispering to me to be patient but I didn't listen. I got all worked up and irritated and generally hard to live with after each rejection.

• One wanted 6 months advanced rent because we are self-employed. We said "no thank you"
• One had 13 applicants and didn't choose us. Their lose. :)
• Another that we really liked had 2 property managers renting the place and the one we weren't working with had already accepted a deposit before it was even shown to us. Frustrating. 
• We were the second applicant on another really nice house, in a not so nice neighborhood. I am pretty convinced it was a previous meth house that had been completely gutted. We actually never saw that place, but my brother did.
• Our fifth application was for a beautiful house in East Millcreek with a stunning view of Mount Olympus from the backyard. As soon as we walked in we knew that we were going to be fighting people off for the house. I prayed all weekend that the owner would choose us. Apparently he chose the first applicant. If I was honest with myself, I knew all along that wasn't the right place for us. Even as I prayed for it to be. 
• And then the place we are living in. 

After we turned in the fifth application I saw our current house advertised online. As I looked at the house I had a feeling it was the place we were suppose to be. But I kind of ignored the feeling because I didn't want to get my hopes up and I was still really in love with the Mt. Olympus home. 

But I called about it and we went to take a look. As we pulled up we noticed that the new Sugar house trolley line will run right next to our house starting in December. Originally I thought it was part of the Trax (commuter train) system and almost got back in the car and drove away, not really wanting to risk my children's lives living next to a speeding train, not to mention the noise. 

But even as we sat on the porch waiting for the owner, Susan, that feeling came back that this was going to be home. Susan informed us that it was a trolley line with maximum speeds of 20 miles per hour and the more we saw of the home the more we loved it. But still I didn't want to get my hopes up again. Rejection is hard. :)

Susan is an artist that owns a gallery and art school around the corner from our home. The fact that her application said she doesn't discriminate against sources of income was giving me hope. Her and Joel chatted forever about artist stuff. He won her over. In the end she didn't even ask for much documentation from us, just as long as we passed a background check. We passed, barely. :)

We arranged to pick up the keys from her. She said she would be teaching a class but that we could just interrupt her and get the keys when we got there with the moving truck. Turns out it was a life/figure drawing class with a male nude model. It was a little hard not to look embarrassed. He did ask me if I wanted to join the class. Awesome. 

So I could have saved a lot of time, heartache, and gas money had I listened and been patient but in the end we found a pretty great house, in a fun neighborhood, 4 miles from the girls' school, and in walking distance of a grocery store, a library, parks, and Deseret Industries (the best thrift store known to man for you non-Mormons :).  

And here is our 130 year old house with all it's character. The kind of place that is fantastic to rent but could be a money pit to own. You know, the kind of places we love to live in. (She showed as a small crack in the foundation when we were doing our walk through asking us if that concerned us. Those of you that visited our place in Lawrence will understand why having concern over that small crack was really funny to us.)

The "crown" wallpaper in the boys room

The studio in our backyard (guess what isn't in my house anymore? ALL JOEL'S FILM EQUIPMENT!!!!) 

Fire place in the back yard with an apricot tree. Yum!

The sweet light I hit my head on EVERY TIME I pass it.  

Stairs and awesome wallpaper up to the girls room 

The girls bathroom. Previous owners left the towels and rack because I mean it would be hard to find towels to match that interesting wallpaper.  

The dancing stage in the boys room. Some people call it a window seat. But it is really for performing.

 The weird pop-up counter. I am speechless about this feature. Random.

Look I can do the dishes and wash clothes at the same time. Without moving.  

And load the dryer while eating dinner. Without moving.

And these are the weird stairs to nowhere. 

And lastly the telephone table for calling the operator. (Don't mind the mess. I've given up unpacking)

The Only Thing Constant is Change

We are about to repeat a journey we took 13 years ago. After I graduated from the University of Kansas in 2000 Joel and I loaded my little red Geo Storm with all my worldly possessions (minus those still in my parent's attic) and moved to Utah. He was a student at BYU and I thought I might possibly say yes if he asked me to marry him. But I figured we should probably live in the same city before then just to be sure it would work out. It is funny that our long distance courtship continued as a long distance marriage. Absence makes the heart grow fonder right?

 

(KU graduation May 2000)

(Our engagement photo August 2000)

But here we are again. Moving to Utah in the hopes of spending more time together. Only this time we are praying all of our belongings will fit in a 26 foot moving truck and a well-loved minivan. Oh and we have four adorable Littles tagging along for the ride. A recent conversation went like this: 

Me, "If we have to throw things out that don't fit in the moving truck, it needs to be equal between my stuff and yours." 

Joel, "Everything I have I need for work". 

Me, "Really? How about all those books?" 

Joel, "You're talking about books?! How about that big tub of journals?" 

Like I am going to throw out all that evidence?!?

 The first time I moved to Lawrence, as an 18 year old, I cried for half the flight from Anchorage. It was very traumatic leaving all my friends and family. I hadn't ever lived anywhere but there. My parents weren't kicking me out or anything, I left voluntarily, even happily to join the soccer team at KU, I mean get a college education. But change is hard. After 4 years I left with an education, having met wonderful people who would become life long friends, and a handsome boyfriend.

(high school senior photo 1996)

And then 9 years later I found myself moving back to Lawrence, under similar circumstances. Meaning I came crying, leaving family, a.k.a. my husband, behind. He didn't kick me out either. I came voluntarily. Or as voluntarily as you can when the alternative is being homeless with three children on the beaches of California. (Minus the children that doesn't sound all that bad now).

Needless to say, the last four years have had their tough moments. Just to name a few:

• Living apart from Joel for a year, formally, but basically the last 4 years.
  
  
• Living with my in-laws for a year (Wonderful, kind, generous people -- but who really wants to move in with family when you are 30?)
  
• Being pregnant while living with in-laws. Nothing says irresponsible like getting pregnant with your fourth child while living in your in-law's basement.
  
• Starting graduate school a week after having that fourth child.
  (I had a good, long cry the night I received my scholarship letter from KU. I had been talking with God about this grad school thing that I had started to apply for before I realized I was pregnant. It went like this: "Okay, I'll finish the application just in case this baby thing doesn't work out. But I won't go if it does." Then it was, "okay I'll go if I get in state tuition". Then it was, "okay I'll go if I get a scholarship too." That was when I realized that God really did want me to do this crazy thing.
  
• Finishing graduate school a year later and then spending the next 2 years being a working, practically single, mother. (Thankfully in my own home).
  
• Breaking my collar bone twice and having two children with broken elbows.

So again I leave Lawrence with another degree, life long friends, and the hope of spending more time with Joel. But the last four challenging years have been filled with many great lessons too:

• I learned about birth control. Just kidding. I really learned that sometimes God gives you things that you never knew you needed. Roman kept me grounded, focused on what was most important. He probably wouldn't be a part of our family still if we were better at the family planning thing. And we'd be missing out on so much. Besides having two boys 19 months apart is very entertaining, if you survive the first year.
  
• Narcotics are pretty amazing. Life is just easier to handle on drugs. And some of my friends say I am funnier when drugged. But it is totally not worth another broken collar bone.
  
• Everywhere I live I meet amazing people who change my life. I planned to come back to Lawrence for 3 months but stayed 4 years and made the most wonderful friends and renewed friendships with awesome people from my first time here. I feel very blessed. 
  
• God has a plan for our family. I felt His hand in my life as I went through graduate school and as I attempted to parent our children alone. The last few years He has helped us get back on our feet, build Joel's career back up, and set our life in the direction we desire again. I am very hopeful. And hope is a beautiful thing.

This photo made reading this long post totally worth it, right?!?