The First of Many Lasts

I am finally updating our blog!  Sorry to all my faithful family members and friends who have probably given up on me.  Life has just been too much recently.  I've been busy cleaning house over and over again for our showings.  The good news is we have had a lot of traffic in our house.  But that has been a lot of work for me.  Our house has now been on the market for 37 days, and we waiting for the Lord to bring us our buyer.  


Last week we picked out our house in NC, so things are moving along.  We are excited for our new adventure God has for us in NC, but are focusing now on closing out relationships here.  We had our last Bible Study at CBS this week.  We have so loved that while we have been here, and we will miss it.  We also had our last regular youth group this week.  There will be many lasts coming up, and we will take them one by one.  


God has been teaching us a lot through this process.  We are so grateful for this time, and what he is doing in our lives.  

"Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act."  Psalm 37:5

Winners for Shutterfly Cards

Sorry, I meant to post this much earlier.  We picked the winners here out of a bucket, and here are the winners of the three Shutterfly codes.

25 free Shutterfly cards goes to...

Jen from The Hambrick Family

Holly from The Shelton Family

Emily from The Dowdy House

Congratulations!  I'll email you the code.

Prayer Request

My heart is broken for friends of ours, Josh and Tasha Via.  They are friends from seminary, and we've had the pleasure of doing ministry with them a few times since.  


They are currently in Uganda adopting a little girl, Shabila.  They have been over there for 2 months, and have had her in their care for about that long.  They have been through a very long process of adopting her and went for the final stage at the US Embassy on Wednesday.  They were to travel home on Sunday.


They were denied her visa.  I don't know all the details but I know they they need a miracle.  Their congressmen have been contacted and it is in the hands of Homeland Security.  The situation looks pretty hopeless, it is completely out of their hands.  We are praying that the Lord will intervene.


Will you pray with me?  Many many people are joining together praying on their behalf.  Pray that the Lord will intervene and that they will get to bring home little Shabila.


"Ah, Lord God!  It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm!  Nothing is too hard for you."  Jeremiah 32:17

Peace of God

"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 4:7


I've known this verse for a while.  It's a very common verse that many people know.  It really hasn't been until this journey that God has us on that I have begun to understand it.  


We received a peace from God about moving to Wake Forest to start the church planting process.  But it's the rest of the verse that has really become alive in my life.


surpasses all understanding


I have tried to explain our peace that we feel, but it's like getting married.  You know when you know.  I am so confident of what God is working in us, I don't think I could be talked out of it.  I just know it's right.


guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus


When are we going to sell our house?  Are we going to be able to sell our house?  What if we have to pay rent and a mortgage?  How will we find a job to support all our living expenses?  How will we have health insurance?  Will I ever be able to go shopping again?  


These are the questions that float around in my head.  But I can honestly say they don't stay long.  I feel like the Lord is protecting me from going there.  He is guarding my mind and my heart.  And He is doing it in the name of Jesus.  Because He is constantly reminding me that Jesus is enough...more than enough.  We would be in shambles if we did not lean on Jesus.  But He has been the one that we trust in, and I have to keep reminding myself that.  Every day.


"For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name."  Psalm 33:21

Shutterfly Christmas Cards

Well its that time of year again.  Christmas is coming, and I already have my photos for our cards.  Now I just need to pick the perfect card.  We plan on getting our cards at Shutterfly again this year.  We have gotten our cards from there for the past five or six years.  They do a great job, and they keep up with the latest styles.  Not to mention they are really affordable!


Here are some of my favorites so far...


I like this one for its simplicity.  We have one good picture that would look good in this format.


This one is probably my favorite so far.  I love the design of it all together!


This one would look so good with our beach pictures, just not sure because its not traditional Christmas colors.  


This one is just so classy.  I love the rich red in it.


There are several more on my "short list", so I'm going to have a difficult time deciding.  


So are you ready for the really good part?  This year Shutterfly is doing something a little different.  If you remember I wrote a review last year as well.  And let me just say, I would not do a review if I did not like the product.  I honestly have been using Shutterfly for years.  It is also where I order my prints from.


Ok, back to the good part.  Are you a blogger?  Want a chance at 25 free cards this holiday season? Register here: http://goo.gl/DDw7Q  


NOTE:  You have to register by 11:59pm tonight, November 11, 2011.


Now for the even better part...


I also have three promo codes to give away to 3 lucky readers!  You will get 25 free holiday cards from Shutterfly!  Leave me a comment and your name will go in the drawing...aka, the hat that one of my kids will draw your name out of!  We do things fancy around here!  Deadline is Tuesday, November 15th, 11:59pm.


Enjoy the weekend and comment on!

Thursday Thoughts

I'm sitting here in my bed with my computer, bible, journal, and phone.  To be honest it has been a great afternoon...just what I needed.  Today is my birthday, and as always I have felt so loved.  But what I really needed today was some alone time.  Some time to get my head on straight, get a few things to check off my to do list, but mostly time to read and pray.  I feel refreshed, after all isn't that what your birthday is about?

Our house is officially on the market.  What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been, hence the lack of blog activity.  We had a showing this morning.  Could this be my very special birthday gift?  Who knows, but right now I am trusting the Lord to provide us with a sweet family to buy our house so they will love and enjoy this home as much as we have!  It's been fun to pray for a buyer with our kids.  The know we have to wait for the Lord to bring the buyer to our home.  

This weekend Haleigh and I trek up to MD and then to PA for a girls' weekend, and I am so giddy!  I need some time away, and so look forward to being with my mom and sister.  Sunday is my cousins' bridal shower, so we are going up Sat to spend some extra time with them.  I could not be more excited for her and the guy she is marrying.  We absolutely love him and they are so so cute together.  

Well I better go get ready for my hot date tonight.  My man is taking me to one of our favorites restaurants here The Boathouse.  It will probably be our last time here, and I will enjoy every last bite!  Their crab hush puppies are to die for!  

Have a good weekend!

A Whole Lotta Sass

It's been a long day...a long week actually.  We first met with our realtor last Thursday and it has been an intense couple of days.  It started with the news that we had to sell our home for A LOT less than what we thought.  Then that we needed to get the house on the market last weekend.  Those two pieces of information were enough to send me over the edge.  I have barely hung on this week, literally clinging to every bit of truth and wisdom I could get.  And honestly, cause we just need to be real here, most of it came from others.


Today we finalized all the paper work and it will officially be on the market in 24 hours-ish.  So all that said, I've learned a lot about real estate this week.  So I thought I'd give you...Katie's List of Things to Know About Real Estate.


(And let me just preface this with I'm tired and there will be a whole lotta MacPherson cynicism and sarcasm.)  


1.  If only we let our houses look as good as they do when they are on the market.


2.  Now is NOT the time to SELL.  The bottom line is our house has depreciated and thankfully not under what we still owe.  But we are not going make barely anything on this sale and we have put so much into it.  It's really frustrating knowing your so-called investment was not really a worthy investment after all.  Everything right now is about the buyer.  You're just so at their mercy and its a horrible feeling.  


3.  The market is NOT getting better.  Yes things are selling, but the prices are horrible.  see #1 - It's a BUYERS market.


4.  When staging a house, make it look as if no kids exist.


5.  When staging a house, in addition to #3 make it look as if no one exists.


6.  When people ask to help, let them help.  You can't do it alone.


7.  The only thing that would make it easier is if those kids mentioned in #3 didn't really exist.  Let me clarify...I want them to exist, just not in the current home that is currently on the market.  Following the terrors around picking up every single thing they displace is, well, tiring.


8.  I hate comps.  They killed us.  That one blasted house that sold two months ago is going to hurt us.  Gotta love the comps.


9.  And speaking of comps...did you know the only thing that matters is your square footage, beds, and baths.  That's it!  Don't bother with the remodeling, redecorating, redesigning.  Thanks HGTV!  Everything you taught me, DOES. NOT. APPLY.