We Accepted an Offer!!!

Wow...after 12 LONG and expensive months, our "big", "fancy" house sold. It has been an exhausting ordeal...physically, emotionally and FINANCIALLY!! But yesterday we said YES to a less than what we wanted offer...but it worked for us.
18 months ago, when we bought our little blue house in the country, we would never have imagined that it would have taken a whole year to sell our other house. We were just SURE that God would sell it immediately and that we would then have the money to go to Africa to adopt.
Well...God in His wisdom did NOT allow that to happen and we are so grateful! We would never have gotten our little Israel (who is soooooooooo wonderful!!!) if we had been given the money to do an "actual" foreign adoption. (Israel is from the Congo but his adoption was domestic since he had been given citizenship in the home he was in prior to joining us in his forever family.)
I have doubted, been angry, and felt like God had abandoned me when all I wanted was to do what we thought He wanted us to do. I will probably never understand why the house didn't sell sooner....in the spring after we had already committed to Israel. I will probably never know why He allowed us to lose $140,000 on that house. Yes, that was the correct number...no typo....pathetic, isn't it? What I think is pathetic is that we think we NEED that kind of house in the first place!!!! There have been times...many times...that I wanted to just move back to the big, pretty house. A lot of it was because of pride. But then I would think about our goal...a debt free lifestyle!
I would like to have a place for our children to come to for holidays, though, and we are hoping to add on when we can pay CASH for the work! Our little blue house in the country is a bit too small to have all nine of our kids and their spouses and kids come home for holidays. (I think we are up to 22 immediate family members now!!!)  This year, we may have to plan something else....
So, what has this year taught us? We have been living very frugally while still maintaining the other big house and it's big mortgage payment, keeping up on the yardwork, the electric bill, etc. and still having the living expenses that THIS house requires. We still had groceries to buy, doctor's visits to pay for, school items to buy....
We have done without a LOT of things. Christmas was much slimmer this past year than in years past.
We have figured out that we CAN live without a dishwasher. We can do without a garbage disposal. Clothes CAN be washed in the sink or bathtub when the washer breaks down. Life goes on...even better than before....without television! There are books to read, games to play, conversations to be had, meals to linger over....little children to spend time with...and adopt into our family.

I'm not sure I would ever want to relive this year again...except for the exhilaration of adopting Israel...it has been really hard. Some months we weren't sure how we were going to make the payments. There was a lot of stress and a lot of tension but there was also a lot of understanding going on. Can you imagine a house with 3 teenagers in it (two of them do NOT have cellphones.....) and not have a television? Everyone knew what the outcome was that we were trying to achieve...a debt free life. A life that would not be tied to bills or payments. Perhaps one that could be more generous to missionaries and people in need. A life that would...hopefully...be more pleasing to our Savior.
I'm pretty sure life won't change significantly for us now that the offer has been accepted. We will still need to be very frugal. But maybe we can get a new water conditioner for our "metal water"....which is what Israel calls our rusty water... Maybe we can get the dishwasher and garbage disposal fixed...

I'm not sure about the television...it may stay disconnected for a while yet!!

Blessings,
Beth