It's a Crazy Life!

There are moments in life when I get bored and burnt out of the day to day things involved with being a stay at home mom/wife.  And then there are times when I wish I only had those day to day things to worry about.  I thought that we would be enjoying a laid back summer with lots of time to practice reading, math, and do fun craft projects, go to the pool, and get back into the exercise routine.  Boy was I wrong! 

Life in the Luckinbill house has been turned upside down and will only get worse before it gets better.  I just want to note here that I believe the timing of all of this has been guided and laid out by the Lord and He has helped things work out at every turn.

First of all, we have had our house in Cushing on the market since before Holland was born (so about 2 1/2 years!!).  In that time we have had 2 families rent the house.  The second family was perfect and we never had a problem with them at all.  Justin and I had been planning a vacation to Guatemala and were finalizing our plans when I got a message that our renters were buying a house and would be moving during the time we would be gone.  We thought about just leaving the house vacant hoping maybe it would sell faster but hadn't decided really when our realtor called and said she was showing the house that day (the day before we left on vacation).  The man she was showing the house to had never seen it before but decided to make an offer!  It was the first offer we had received on the house and it was very close to the asking price, so we were ecstatic!!  We signed all the papers and then left on vacation.  I believe that this event of the renters moving and the house selling in a very short amount of time was in the hands of the Lord.

I'll have to do a post of vacation details later!

So, the day we get back from vacation, Justin has a message that he has been officially offered a job in California and they want him to start in a week and a half.  The beginning of June he had done a phone interview with the prison in California City and the next day, they offered him the job, pending a background investigation.  That prison has a federal contract, so Justin had to be approved by the Feds.  We thought the background check would take much longer but they said they had done enough to go ahead and have Justin start.  Wow!  So, we hadn't even told family and friends that moving was a possibility for us.  My dad immediately stepped up and said he and my mom would help me and the kids move out there.  And since then Justin's dad and my brother Jakob have made arrangements to help drive us too!  Justin started work yesterday and liked it a lot.  The rest of us will be moving the first part of August.

This move has added a lot of stressful things that have to be done.
-find renters for our house
-find a house to rent
-get house fixed up to rent
-sell as much as possible, including a lot of our furniture
-pack up the house and coordinate the moving truck and loading process, MYSELF
-finish up all that has to be done to close on our Cushing house
-keep kids happy during the whole process

We haven't rented in a long time and it is almost as involved as buying a house!  Credit checks, applications, transferring money and getting things put in our name.....I am pretty good with managing money but moving this much money around is overwhelming.  We are really excited to use the profit from the sale of the house to pay off all debts (except mortgage), get new furniture, and hopefully have some leftover to save for a rainy day (not likely to rain because we'll be in the desert).

The timing of everything is proof that the Lord has carved out this path.  Everything has fallen into place and while it is stressful, I feel very blessed and am accepting (feeling more at peace with the move) the idea of leaving ALL our family and friends and moving across the country.  I know things will work out and I'm excited for all the opportunities and adventures we will have while we live in Southern California.