Bad news... again

Once again, we've had a contract fall apart on our house. We were in the middle of negotiations, and the buyer walked. Rather than come back with a counter, or insist on her original request, she just walked. The inspection turned up nothing, except that our hot water heater and AC/furnace were near their life. She asked that we replace them, and we countered with a 1-year warranty. We didn't hear anything for days, until our agent received a fax for the disbursement of the earnest money. Apparently, nothing she said changed their minds to come back to the table.

I can't imagine how someone from out-of-state (as far as Cali) could just stop negotiations and start searching for another house. Once we knew how insistent she was, we were willing to replace the AC and water heater. But, that didn't even bring her back. I know it's a buyer's market, but are you just supposed to hand over your right arm without negotiating at all?

So, now we're 0-2, which looks really bad. And yet, neither were really our fault (the first buyer's house didn't appraise for what she needed, so she couldn't get financing to buy our house). I have no nice comments or deep thoughts, because my stomach is still on the floor, flipped over, and I haven't screwed my jaw back in yet.

Mother's Day

I'm just going to list my Mother's Day gifts:

• Spa Pedicure and lunch at The Chocolate Biscuit tearoom. (It was actually my Mom's Birthday and Mother's Day present, but I definitely benefited--don'tcha love giving those sorts of presents?) I failed to get a picture, but we ate with my sis-in-law, Mandy, and her Mama, JoAnn.
• Three roses from my hubby for the three years I have been a mother. (I'm waiting to see what happens as we have more children--will there be one rose per year that I have mothered each child?)
• A very special necklace and card from my son.
  

The card has John's handprint, in which he lists the 5 reasons he loves his Mommy (and these are his words, when Rob asked him why he loves me):

1. Snuggles
2. Hugs
3. Takes care of me
4. Takes me bye-bye
5. Makes my snack

Ain't it nice to know you are appreciated and precisely why? I love my John!

We have a contract!

Here's a short, picture-less post, brought on by Erin's comment on the previous post. We currently have a contract on our house. Woo-hoo! That's a little eruption of joy, because we know how the last contract ended--with us still paying the mortgage. We're afraid of counting our chickens before they hatch :)



But, we praise God for an offer that was more sensible in price than the last two, that allows us time to get everything together (closing is 6 weeks from when we got the offer), and that gives us security (the contract is NOT contingent on the sale of her house AND we get 2 days after closing to move our stuff out). Please join us in asking Him to give us peace about this whole situation and guidance in looking for houses in Bham. Pray that everything will go smoothly so we can finally close this chapter of our lives (even though we really miss our friends and our church in TN).