Our new house

When David's family first moved to Germany a little over 20 years ago, they had no place to live. After many months of living in one little room, David's parents were given the amazing opportunity to choose one of eight brand new houses in which to live. Seeing the need which David's family had, as well as many others like them, the government built several new houses with the intent of renting them out to bigger families who were in need of a place to live. David spent the rest of his growing-up years living in one of these houses, until he left for the States on voluntary service. Since then, David's parents have bought a house and no longer live there. But to David, this is where he considers his 'home' in Germany.

While we were still in R-land, and knew that we were returning to Germany, we both thought that it would be wonderful if we could live in one of those eight houses. The location is great... in walking distance to a grocery store, bakery, post office, bank, bus stop, kindergarten, our home church, etc. Also, the rent is very decently priced, as they were made for bigger families (who don't necessarily have a lot of extra money floating around =D). (Actually, one of the main requirements in order to live there, is that you have to have at least five children in your family.) And, it would be plenty of space for our family, including a little fenced in yard out back where the kids could play. Yet, we knew that other people want to live in one of these houses, and there is a long waiting list. Plus, we didn't know of anyone wanting to move out.

The beginning of April we were delighted when we received a call from David's aunt and uncle, who live in one of those houses, that their next door neighbors were planning on moving out this summer. We quickly contacted these people, and began setting up plans for us to go with them to the organization who owns these houses, asking if we could move in after them. Things were looking very promising, and we were so excited! During this time, we had turned down quite a few other houses and apartments, as we were pretty sure that we would be getting this house.

Well, then mid-May, we received a call from the people, saying that their plans fell through, and that they would not be moving out after all this year. We were disappointed, but certain that He had something better for us. Well, we then spent the next month looking and looking at many different houses. It soon became obvious to us that it was going to be extremely difficult to find something big enough for our family, in a good location, and at a decent price. Plus, we learned pretty quickly that people weren't too thrilled with the idea of renting out a house to a family with six little ones.

We knew that He had a place for us and everything would work out in His perfect timing, but still, it was difficult not getting discouraged and impatient. Well, then about a month ago, we received a call from David's aunt and uncle saying that yes, their neighbors have decided to move out after all, and they wanted to get in touch with us! We tried hard not to get our hopes up, as we've been disappointed so many times before that, but we were excited!

As it turned out, we received the "o.k" that we could have the house, the family that was living there moved out, and we were handed the keys yesterday! We are SO excited and feel so blessed to be able to live there! Thankfully, there isn't too much work that needs to be done... just some painting and wallpapering. We hope to be able to move to our new place by August 1st... just depends how long it takes David to get everything done. (I won't be able to help him much at all, as someone has to take care of our kiddos! =D)

Yesterday, after we received the keys, we took the kids to go and look at our new house! They really like it, which we knew they would. We think it's great too that we will be living right beside David's aunt and uncle. (Actually, our houses share a wall.) David's Oma lives with them as well, so we'll be able to spend some good quality time with her too. We are SO thankful for our new house, and are anxious to get 'moved-in'! Thanks for thinking about a house for us. He has answered our prayers in a wonderful way!

Here's a picture of our house! You can see David's aunt and uncle's house to the left, and to the right of our house is a little garage. See that little patch of grass in front? I can't believe it! We'll live in a house with GRASS! =) He has been, and is so wonderfully good to us!