One of the more common questions that we get is, "Where are you going to put all these babies!?" The answer, I think, is truly another miracle in our lives.
Last fall we started looking around at houses just for fun. Jayson had just turned down a job offer that would require us to move. When we considered the offer, we took a good look at our finances to determine how much of a house we could afford if we were to move. Although we decided against the job offer and out-of-state move, we got a little restless and started looking around at houses in our area just to see what was out there. We had lived in our house for nearly seven years, which is longer than I have ever lived anywhere, and we were itching for a change. While we were looking, we found the "perfect house". We loved the floor plan and the whole design of the house. The house had a lot of storage (something we had run out of at our current house). It also had four bedrooms, plus a study and an unfinished room, called the "Texas basement" for storage. Although we loved the house, we still were unsure about signing a contract to build it, because it seemed bigger than what we really needed. Our current house at the time could have easily held another child, and moving up seemed a bit frivolous. However, after praying about it, we felt really good about the decision to build the bigger house, so we went ahead and signed the papers.
At first, I was reluctant to even tell my friends about the new house. Although we had felt really good about the decision and felt like the new house would be a good investment, we still felt like we were being a little extravagant by moving up before we really needed to.
After we signed the papers in the middle of October, our realtor advised us to put our current house on the market as soon as possible. The real estate market in Austin was a bit uncertain and the average number of days on the market at the time was around 90. We spent the next month fixing all the little things, painting and getting everything ready. On December 1st, we put our house on the market. Four days later the house sold, for the asking price! We couldn't believe it. The family that bought the house wanted to move in right after the holidays, so December was a hectic month as we got ready for Christmas and the move. During all the chaos, I was undergoing fertility treatments and was in the doctor's office about every other day so they could monitor me closely.
We moved into a rental house and closed on our old house at the beginning of January. On January 23rd, we found out we were having quintuplets. Suddenly everything everything with the house made sense! The house that we were building was the perfect size for our soon-to-be-seriously-expanded family. We talked to our builder right away about adding a window and sheet rock to the "Texas basement" storage room so that we could make it into a bedroom. The house will now have four bedrooms upstairs and the master bedroom and a study downstairs. The house also has an extended bay on one half of the garage, which will be helpful now that we will need to park a 12-passenger van in there.
Here is a picture of the new house taken a couple of days ago:
The house is expected to be done in mid-June, so Jayson will have to close on the house and move in without me. Jayson has two WONDERFUL aunts that have offered to come out in July and help unpack, arrange furniture and even paint the kids rooms, so the house should be all ready for the babies and I to come home to. No offense to Jayson, but I trust his aunts to organize things like my kitchen much more than I trust him!
This whole experience has been such a testimony to me that God knows us individually and that He plays an active roll in our lives. We feel truly blessed that we will now have a home big enough for our family.
Home Sweet Home
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