To all of you who commented or emailed something along the lines of, “Woohoo, you got a house! I was thinking of you/praying for you/hoping you’d gotten one by now,” thank you so very much! I haven’t had great access to the internet and haven’t been able to respond individually like I want to, but please know we appreciate all of those prayers and thoughts and good wishes.

We are quite pleased with the house we have rented. The owners are kind and conscientious. The house itself is larger than what we expected to get for our money, and it’s in excellent repair. We are looking forward to the arrival of the moving truck so we can start to arrange furniture and unpack and make it our home.

But the best—and funniest—thing about this house is its location. It happens to be in the same neighborhood we lived in a decade ago, just a few blocks from our old house. So we already know all the good restaurants, where the library is, the best route to get downtown. We looked at houses all over the city and just lucked into a great house in an area we already knew and loved.

There are more photos than you could possibly want to see in the set New house! on Flickr. You can view this set as a slideshow, which is kinda cool. Just be sure to click on the “Options” link down in the bottom right and check the box for ‘Always show title and description’ if you want to read my explanations.

It’s in a great neighborhood with a decent commute time for Troy and has an enclosed front yard with a couple of citrus trees and the landlords seem genuinely nice and it’s costing us about one-sixth less than most of the other contenders we looked at. Score!

We were getting rather discouraged after our initial foray into the rental market last week, when we just weren’t finding anything promising that was available/afforable/allowed cats. Then I had a talk with myself one night before I fell asleep. I reminded myself that each place we have lived in the past twelve years, even the ones we didn’t like much at first, has been a blessing in one way or another. I prayed that God would help me remember that wherever we live, it will be the right house for us.

When I woke in the morning, I had received an email from our friend Lisa, encouraging us in our house hunt. It read in part, “Remember whatever you’re going through now you have to go through to get to where God wants you to be.”

Later that day, we were driving around viewing homes when we passed a little house with a ‘For Rent’ sign on the gate. We didn’t stop, but went on to view two or three different houses. When we finished with the last one Troy said, “We’re still in the neighborhood. Wanna go check out that house with the ‘For Rent’ sign on it?” So we did, and then we called the number on the sign. The owners agreed to meet us later that evening to show us the property.

We introduced ourselves to our potential landlords with smiles and handshakes, and then wandered around the house as the owners followed at a discreet distance, ready to answer questions but letting us lead the way. We stage-whispered to each other in each room: Can you believe how much storage there is in this kitchen!?…Cool, a laundry chute!…I wonder if the piano could go on the second floor?

We ended our tour in the kitchen, after being encouraged to walk around the house again if we liked, and I filled out an application on the spot as Troy chatted with the owners. We drove away slightly giddy with hope and confidence, having been promised a phone call to let us know by noon the next day.

Next morning at 8:30 we got the call. We signed a lease and wrote a check that afternoon. Thursday night we pick up the keys.

Now to face the next challenge: unpacking all twelve trillion boxes!

Annalie loves wearing dresses but hates tights and leggings. She does not like wearing socks, and isn’t a big fan of shoes either. Coats and hats annoy her. She loves loves LOVES to swim and would spend all day every day in the pool if we let her. We’ve been telling her for months that she was going to love living in Southern California. So far, even though we don’t have a place to live, our prediction seems to be correct.

Annalie has been staying with my mom at my Aunt Julie’s house while Troy and I have been running around looking for a place to live. According to my mom’s reports Annalie has been very well-behaved and is having a blast hanging out with my cousin’s kids (her second cousins), playing with my aunt’s dog and cat, and just generally being her usual sunny self.

I know she’s having way more fun with them than she would be having with us, strapped into a carseat for half the day, driving all over the city looking at houses. It’s hard enough for me not to get attached to a house that I like before we’ve even filled out a rental application, so I imagine it would be even trickier for a 4-year-old. I remember going to look at a house my parents were thinking about buying when I was three years old and thinking that the toy box I saw would be staying in the house. When we moved into that house later, I was quite disappointed to find they had taken their toys with them.

I’m glad that Annalie is secure enough to not miss us much. It’s so much easier to leave her since I know she understands we’re coming back. And really, if I were her, I’d rather be hanging out on my aunt’s back porch under the umbrella, or swimming in the wading pool too.