David Update

As I'm sitting here listening to my son let out intense grunts while playing with his toys, in attempts to compete with the noise of his Gramma Tarter's vacuum cleaner...I thought, I haven't written about David in a while! :) I'll be honest, house hunting has consumed every waking minute. We have existed in two modes - #1 House Hunting Mode or #2 House Hunting Recovery Mode. The latter of the two consists of things like sitting on the bed with blank stares, talking in monotone voices about how tired we are and can't wait to get into our own house and begin normalcy!

So, with a contract pending now, I thought I would take a few minutes and post some new pictures of the little man! I can hardly believe he is 7 months already...and he is over 20 lbs, not sure exactly how much, but he was 19 lbs. 7 oz at his 6 month appointment and I know he's heavier now! His newest development is rolling over in his crib which, mixed with teething has made for some rough nights! He is still ever aspiring to MOVE! Each stage brings contentment for about a week or so and then he's trying new things. For the first few months he was fine to lay on his back and play, then it was the belly and lifting his head, on to a little bit of rolling - but he wasn't really digging that so he stopped. Then he learned to sit on his own and play with his toys, now he's lunging forward to his belly and has brought back the rolling. When he's playing with someone he also likes to lean forward and pull himself up. Everyone keeps telling me once he learns how to move there's going to be no stopping him!

He also gives hugs and kisses...not exactly sure if he KNOWS that's what he's doing, but that's what we call them. Most of the time they are nice and sweet, but every once in a while he really rears back and goes after your face!! There are three ladies that particularly draw this wild animal out of him - a woman from our church, our pastor's wife and Zach's mom. It was cute at first (and still is, I'll admit, laughable) but this boy's got two full blown teeth and is pushing 22 lbs! It hurts! Picture the scene - Mrs. Perez (the woman from church who for some reason really riles him up) comes up to him talking in her baby Spanish (she doesn't speak English) making her little tongue noises and tickling his cheeks. She then reaches out to hold him and once in her arms he latches on to either hair or earrings, which ever comes first, rears back and plants his open mouth on her face - shaking his head back and forth, chomping down repeatedly! And so, for the safety of others and the good of his soul - we have started teaching David what "No" means. Along with phrases like "Be gentle" and "That hurts Mama." :) As we begin teaching him the first of many, many, MANY things...I am humbled and appropriately frightened by the task set before us. Just another reminder that we can't do this alone, that along with the counsel of friends and family who have been here ahead of us, we need to lean on Christ and look to him for grace and wisdom and new mercies everyday.

So with that by way of an update on David...here are a few pictures of him from the past month or so. Enjoy! :)

Officially Under Contract!

We just found out from our realtor today that our latest offer has been officially accepted! We found out at the end of last week that they were verbally accepting it but there were still papers that needed to be signed, as of today though - its official! We had our inspection done yesterday and everything looked good. A few minor things, but nothing major. We're meeting with our mortgage consultant tomorrow morning to do some paperwork and get the financing part of things moving. We also found out today that we may still be approved to go with the USDA even though it's past the "deadline". No exactly sure what the process will be this next month, we'll learn as we go - as we have been through this entire process! Our contract has the closing date as on or before June 4th. So Lord willing by the first week of June, we will own a home! :)

Another Housing Update

Much has happened since my last update...of those 9 that we were going to see, like 4 of them already had pending contracts so we didn't end up seeing very many and unfortunately did not find "the one." We've since decided to look in some other areas and be open minded about what God might have for our future plans. So we started looking a little more north than we had originally planned and found a great deal on a "fixer-upper" HUD home in Punta Gorda. We put in an offer and were out bid by $1000. So close, yet so far...Honestly though, at this point I just expect to hear that our offers been rejected or beat out so I wasn't too emotional about it.

Again, the search was on...a few more days of looking around led us to North Port where we saw a string of 3 or 4 houses we liked and we decided to put an offer in on one of them. We submitted it on Wednesday afternoon and found out this morning that we are the only offer "on the table". Unfortuneately it's bank owned so because the seller is an institution instead of a person, the decision as to whether or not our offer is accepted may take a few days - giving more time for us to sit and wait and also more time for better offers to come in.

So we'll see what happens....I'll keep you all posted!