Bittersweet

It’s been a fast and furious few weeks with signing papers, packing boxes, loading boxes, and house inspections on both sides of the process of selling/buying a home.  It has been a time of tying up loose ends and looking ahead.  Understandably, it’s been a bittersweet and an exhausting time as well.  The new year has brought us a mixture of gratitude and reflection mixed in with a time of hope and wonder as we continue on our journey.

So great to pull into the drive the Friday before "Pack up the House Day" and see SOLD!

We were overwhelmed with help in packing up our home in Newburgh.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but tried to have the boxes, tape, and markers ready to go the night before.  The packing crew on the Saturday we packed was AWESOME!!!  They began showing up one by one and when one would need to go, another person would arrive.  I was going to be happy if the downstairs was completed that day, and instead they did it all in a four hour time span.  It was far beyond what I had hoped.  Because we were living in the house while we packed there were still some things left to pack up, but only a closet and the bathroom we were using.  When they left I wept tears of gratitude and thankfulness.  Bittersweet.



Part of the packing crew:  Patti, Kim, and Donna!  THANK YOU!!!

Camping in the Newburgh house.

One of the last things I packed was our family pictures.  I love pictures as you can tell from my blog.  I think it adds something words can’t capture.  I found myself not packing them up.  Instead I was going through them and taking a trip down memory lane and posting a few on Facebook.  It was very fun!  I found my baby book, grade school report cards, senior pictures, prom pictures, and pictures of Neil and Maddie as babies that I hadn’t seen in a long time.  I found pictures of myself as young as two years old with my grandmothers, one of which is now with Jesus.  I found pictures from past Christmases and pictures of our honeymoon.  I found pictures when we were thin and Brad had facial hair. Then I found pictures of when we built the O’Hunter House and a piece of paper that listed the steps in the building process with handwritten dates on the side of when they were completed.  I smiled, I laughed, and I shed some tears.   Bittersweet.

 

 

Loading day was just like packing the house up day.  We weren’t sure exactly how many would turn out and again, God provided more than enough.  He always does and He always will.  Why I stew and fret I have yet to figure out.  I’m so glad He is patient with me.  As I’ve shared before, many hands make light work…even cold ones.  About an hour into the loading, the temperature dropped.  No one complained.  With red checks, red noses, and frozen toes they continued to load furniture and boxes in the trailer.  Four hours later, the trailer could hold no more and our friends departed.  There is something about seeing all your earthly possessions in one place, loaded up in boxes.  Loading day was emotional and difficult.  The realization we may not see some of these sweet, sweet people this side of eternity again rushed over me.  Bittersweet. 

The trailer arrived by 10 a.m.  Little did we know it would be full six hours later.

The hands and feet of Jesus to the Ferris family.  Thank you friends!

The ramp was the last thing they could fit on the trailer.  Done.

The most difficult part of the good-bye process in Newburgh though hands down was Thursday.  It was the last day we spent in the house.  We loaded up a UHAUL with the items that wouldn’t fit on the big trailer, loaded up the Explorer on the trailer, loaded up the van and the car topper, and finished cleaning the house.  As I cleaned each room Wednesday and Thursday, I prayed for the new occupants for joy, laughter, good health, and wonderful memories.  I prayed Jesus would be their Lord and Savior and change their lives. Then it was time to do one final walk through.  Now the house was completely empty of stuff but so full of other things.  As I was going through one last time, the sounds of laughter from the children still echoed off the walls.  Cries of babies just brought home from the hospital sounded in my mind.  Visions of Neil and Madeline running up the stairs laughing as they made their way to their rooms on move in day played in my mind.  Memories of family celebrations - anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, good report cards, milestones of riding bikes, crawling, walking, and baptisms flooded over me.  Dinner time laughter echoed in the empty kitchen.  Bedtime prayers softly spoken from a child’s heart whispered out from the walls of empty bedrooms.  Giggles, tears, and so much more surrounded me, and their sounds seemed amplified in the emptiness.  This was the last time we’d ever be in those walls, and while I was glad to take the memories with me, the time had come to leave.  It was time to say good-bye to an old friend.  Bittersweet.

Good-bye!

Paper signing day to sell our O’Hunter house was a good day.  The new family was precious.  The father is a minister!!!  I had a smile on my face knowing that the house was in good hands with people who loved Jesus and would take care of it.  So good to know those walls will be filled with Jesus’s love, laughter, and hope again very quickly!  It was a joy after all the papers were signed to join hands and pray together with them and our realtors.  We pulled out of Newburgh afterwards exhausted but full of hope and wonder and what God had in store for us.  During our time in Newburgh, an offer we made on a house in Springfield had been accepted.   The next step was to wait for an inspection report on this new house.  Sweet.

Pulling out and heading back to Illinois

The new house was incredible and looked great!  It was built for entertaining and we eagerly looked forward to a projected move in date of late February.   Needless to say we were thrilled and VERY excited!  Inspection day was Wednesday of this week, but the findings were not positive.  Over 20 major problems were identified.  These items were things one wouldn’t be able to see by just walking through the house.  We had been continuing to pray about the inspection and asking God to open the door if that is where He wanted us or to shut the door if not.  We both had a peace that God had shut a door and had protected us.  Bittersweet.

We were very disappointed, all six of us.  I think I was the most disappointed of all – the kitchen was INCREDIBLE (stainless steel appliances, double oven, cook top, custom cabinets, quartz counters, ceramic tile flooring…a cook’s delight!).  I had to seek out some chocolate cake therapy along with a glass of blackberry lemonade from Smokey Bones yesterday after the “official” report was e-mailed to us.   Today I was amused at how sad I was about losing something that wasn’t even mine to begin with, but in my mind I had moved us all in and had planned out some groups of people to have over.  The children had this hilarious menu planned to help me “try out” the new kitchen our first week in the house.  We had begun to make plans and mentally get settled and now that was not to be a reality.  I was reminded of Proverbs 16:9, “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” (New Living Translation)   Bittersweet. 

Chocolate Cake Therapy

God has something different planned for the Ferris family, something better for us somewhere out there in our future.  The difficult part is waiting to see what that is.  We appreciate your prayers for us and once again ask you continue to go before God on our behalf to show us where we need to live and make the path clear to us.  We need wisdom.  Please pray for God to open the right doors and close the wrong ones.    While we wait, we will continue to “camp” in our little red cabin and hold onto the thought that the best is still yet to come and that is not a bitter thing…it is very, very sweet!