A Child's Prayer
Last night after a long day looking at rental homes and being in the car, we were all ready to get a good night's sleep. We knelt in family prayer and Rhett decided he wanted a turn to pray. His prayer started like this, "Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for this beautiful hotel we have to live in, but now could you please help us find a house." Mine don't seem to be working so well, but I have complete faith that Rhett's sweet prayer will.
Football In Florida
Saturday morning we went to a giant park so that Brad could play football with the men from the local wards. He had a great time! Brad is still pretty good at football so the men were thrilled to have him as part of the team. He might be a little slower, and more likely to pull a muscle now and again, but he can still throw that ball farther and prettier than anyone on the field. And to make us feel right at home, his pants came off during the game. I don't think I have ever seen Brad participate in a flag football game where his pants didn't end up around his ankles. Then, I realized I have a whole new football vocabulary I need to learn. Yesterday Brad made a super long pass while diving to avoid being tackled and someone said, "That was a Tebow Stretch!" Then I heard the name Tim Tebow referred to several other times, and some other names that didn't seem to have such a complimentary reference.
It would be like us saying, "that was a Hall pass, or a Harlin catch" Or "you run like a Ute!" I also have learned you can use the name Tebow out here to describe anything that you think is great. "This ice cream is so good, it's Tebow good." I even heard someone refer to a piece of gospel doctrine as "Tebow". Anyhow, I have to update my football lingo.
Homeless in FL= Free Oranges
Yesterday we were looking at a rental house that we are interested in. It is actually a house we looked at to buy when we were here in October, but was too expensive. It's an older home, but in a really nice, beautiful neighborhood, set on a fenced acre with a separate, screened-in pool. The people who own this home are professors at the University of Florida, and have been working on trying to develop a hybrid of the Florida orange that is frost resistant. So, they have this whole side yard of huge orange and tangerine trees from his work. They were packed with fruit and the boys had eyes so big you would have thought it was their first time at Disneyland! We started talking to some neighbors about the neighborhood and schools, etc. They were extremely nice people, very helpful, and were the Lacross coaches at the High School. They were asking about where we were staying and what our plans were, when I just happened to be using our most recent favorite word, "Homeless." At that exact moment, three little boys walked out from behind a large hedge with their arms and shirts filled with as many oranges as they could carry. "Look mom, we got all these oranges off the trees!" The neighbor laughed and said, "you may be homeless, but it looks like you won't starve!" It was a little embarrassing but these were extremely pleasant people, with two sons of their own, so it was more comical than humiliating. Then we all went over and picked the special hybrid oranges and ate and talked some more. They were pretty tasty! When we got in the car we looked back and the ENTIRE back seat of the car was filled with oranges. They must have felt the need to secure food for the family in our homeless state. Needless to say, they have decided this is the home they want to live in.
Things Are Looking Up
Some good things happened, we have a new lender now, that in 5 minutes time, solved three of the problems that our old lender was taking weeks to solve. So now closing on this home doesn't look quite so bleak. We also found two really great rental homes that we would be perfectly happy living in. They fit all our size and entertainment needs and are in great neighborhoods for a good price. It's nice having two options so if one gets rented, we have a spare! Part of us wouldn't mind not getting to buy the home now, because we really like the rentals! Another good thing that happened, is yesterday at the church football game, we met a real estate agent who is listing a house right now for a family in his ward that has already moved to California. It's a small home, in an older neighborhood, but it has a fenced yard and is kind of close to Brad's work. He called this family and asked if they would like to rent their house out to us on a week to week basis until we closed on our home. They were happy to do it, helping us out, and also getting some financial help paying the mortgage on a home they don't live in anymore, so it was a win-win for both of us. It will cost us less than staying in a one room hotel, but now we have 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, yard, and a washer and dryer!!! When we told the boys we were going to move out of the hotel and into this house, Rockwell's reaction was, "That's the house you chose? It's the most boring one!" No oranges, no swimming pool, no fountains, no playground, what were we thinking? We explained to him this was just a house we were borrowing, not the house we were "choosing". He's seen a lot of houses here in Florida, between our trip here in October and over the last two weeks, and he couldn't believe out of everything we've looked, this was the one we were going with. This will be a good opportunity to teach them to be grateful for the little things in life, and to appreciate the nicer things in life that they have been blessed with.
Despite the chaos we seem to be living in, I am remarkably calm and generally stress-free. The boys are being so good and London is a dream as always. I think this will be a fun adventure and that many good things will come out of our time here.
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