It's Official...We're Texans
It should have been easy figuring out where to go next, right? After all, we had 15 months since retiring to live in five different SOOP assignment locations as well as spend several weeks in between each to be with Ruth's Dad in PA.
But it was not until after much thought and prayer that we decided to move to San Antonio, Texas. We are grateful for new friends at the Mennonite church here who offered us a room in their house to rent with full use of the house as needed until we could find our own place. It's been good to be here and make this new friendship as well as get to know many others.
We thought it also would be easy to find a house of our own, but 2 and 1/2 months later we were still looking. So the end of March, we told ourselves (and God) that this was our last day of looking. If we didn't find anything, we'd find an apartment to rent at least for 6 months and give up the house search. That Saturday we saw an afternoon open house listed in an area central to everything we hope to be involved in, as well as close to stores, parks and museums. Our realtor didn't have time to go with us, but informed the seller's realtor that we'd be by. We got to talk briefly that day to that realtor and also one of the siblings who was involved with the estate sale. All bids had to be in by 8:00 that evening.
We found out our bid was accepted the next day! We also found out that even though we were at asking value, there were ten bids offered and one of them was a lot higher than ours, but they accepted ours! Over the week before closing, we had various days to visit with the sibling handling the estate since we needed to get a number of estimates for fix-up costs and bringing things up to code. One day they told us why we got the bid. They said that when they heard Jim had been a pastor, that they knew we were the ones to have the house since "Dad was a very religious man and that's what he would have wanted." (Another aside is that we closed on our new house the same day that Ruth's Dad moved into an efficiency in a retirement community! We are so grateful to Ruth's brother and his wife who moved back to that area and are doing so much to facilitate that move.)
We have been volunteering some with the church and asylum seekers at the transitional house they have set up here: welcoming them, teaching some ESL, and also at the airport helping them navigate their journey. We plan to continue and increase that involvement, but we also need to get the house more livable first. It's a small but cute two bedroom, one bath house with detached garage, built in 1947. We assume it will take several months to do remodeling work, but after we are more settled, we'd love to welcome any who can come to visit!
Thanks for your place in our lives and thoughts throughout this journey. We appreciate your continued prayers as we transition to a new setting.
But it was not until after much thought and prayer that we decided to move to San Antonio, Texas. We are grateful for new friends at the Mennonite church here who offered us a room in their house to rent with full use of the house as needed until we could find our own place. It's been good to be here and make this new friendship as well as get to know many others.
We thought it also would be easy to find a house of our own, but 2 and 1/2 months later we were still looking. So the end of March, we told ourselves (and God) that this was our last day of looking. If we didn't find anything, we'd find an apartment to rent at least for 6 months and give up the house search. That Saturday we saw an afternoon open house listed in an area central to everything we hope to be involved in, as well as close to stores, parks and museums. Our realtor didn't have time to go with us, but informed the seller's realtor that we'd be by. We got to talk briefly that day to that realtor and also one of the siblings who was involved with the estate sale. All bids had to be in by 8:00 that evening.
We found out our bid was accepted the next day! We also found out that even though we were at asking value, there were ten bids offered and one of them was a lot higher than ours, but they accepted ours! Over the week before closing, we had various days to visit with the sibling handling the estate since we needed to get a number of estimates for fix-up costs and bringing things up to code. One day they told us why we got the bid. They said that when they heard Jim had been a pastor, that they knew we were the ones to have the house since "Dad was a very religious man and that's what he would have wanted." (Another aside is that we closed on our new house the same day that Ruth's Dad moved into an efficiency in a retirement community! We are so grateful to Ruth's brother and his wife who moved back to that area and are doing so much to facilitate that move.)
We have been volunteering some with the church and asylum seekers at the transitional house they have set up here: welcoming them, teaching some ESL, and also at the airport helping them navigate their journey. We plan to continue and increase that involvement, but we also need to get the house more livable first. It's a small but cute two bedroom, one bath house with detached garage, built in 1947. We assume it will take several months to do remodeling work, but after we are more settled, we'd love to welcome any who can come to visit!
Thanks for your place in our lives and thoughts throughout this journey. We appreciate your continued prayers as we transition to a new setting.
 |
| Our Fixer-Upper. Let the fun begin!?! |
 |
| Spring in San Antonio always is full of color. |
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete