I have not been a good blogger lately. Part of this is due to the fact that I have kept busy at work, and part of it is lack of interest. I hate that I say that, but some days I'm just not up to the daily broadcast. When I write I like to sit down and collect my thoughts and not be interrupted. Considering I do most of my blogging at work this is not always possible. I have a few moments now so here goes a quick update.
In the first tidbit we are no longer putting the house on the market. We were starting to get things ready when two foreclosed in our neighborhood were put on the market for about $40,000 less than we needed to make on our home. Considering they were in decent condition we could not justify to most buyers such a high cost at this time. To be honest it felt like a little setback. We were so pumped to sell the house and pay off a huge chunk of our debt as well as get a cheaper payment in an apartment. It seems like no matter what avenue we try to take God keeps bringing us back to stay in this house for awhile longer. We decided to go ahead and try to refinance. I was excited to find out that since we did not use an FHA the first time around we could qualify to refinance into one with a 4.5% interest rate. Now that is an awesome rate! Of course we will not reap the benefits of selling and collecting a huge sum of cash to pay off a large debt, but there is also no guarentee we would have sold right away or even anytime in the future. In the mean time we would have continued paying a ridiculously high interest rate. We will save almost $300 a month which will definitely help us accelarate our debt snowball. The only thing that could make me happier if if I could move our home out of Dallas county. The taxes are outrageous! We also received good news that our new rate will be assumable, meaning in the future when were try to sell, any potential buyer who qualifies for an FHA can assume our interest rate. Most likely rates will not be this low in a year or two. This will make our home a very attractive property and set us apart from others who might be selling.
In the meantime we are focusing on continuing our financial baby steps and making this home feel like home. Chris and I were both talking last night about how we have focused more on the future and eventually being somewhere else instead of just being content and making this our home for now. We still both carry a strong desire for the simple church ideas, and feel maybe our forward thinking has kept us from truly becoming apart of our neighborhood to impact people here and now in our community. Proverbs says,"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." I know we have made a lot of plans, but God moves our steps. He is in control, and we are most at peace when we don't try to put up roadblocks. Wherever I am and wherever I end up all I can say is,"God use me."
Another big change in our lives is my dad is going to Africa for three months. He has been appointed to go help bring some wisdom and structure to a ministry he has worked closely with in Burkina Faso. He has some hard work ahead of him, but I know it will be a great time for him to make connections and be in a land he has come to love so much. We will all miss him a lot. It really hasn't sunk in yet that he won't be around the whole summer. He has traveled for maybe two weeks at a time, but this is a little different. I know Kaylie is really going to miss her papa.
I really have wanted to post pictures, but our computer at home is a pain right now. It is running slower than molasses so it is not worth much. Maybe one day in the future I will get to it.
Now I need to get back and finish up for the end of the day. I'll try to make the next post sooner that two weeks!
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