I’ve spent most of my life searching out uniqueness. I always wanted clothes that no one else had, had to have my own style, and wanted to stand out. My identity typically included mentioning I was from somewhere, ANYWHERE except for where I currently lived. So it was pretty easy to claim that, since I was born in California and had parents from St. Louis (Dad) and Connecticut (Mom) I could always have a distinct place to be from without being just like everyone else. Now that we’ve returned to Texas I have to finally admit that I am definitely a Texan at heart and loving every minute of it.

When I graduated from college in December 1998 I went home with my parents for Christmas, stayed there exactly 6 days and then boarded a plane to go visit my best friend(now known as EbonyDad) in New York. Little did they know that I planned to search for a job while I was there and wound up never using the return portion of my plane ticket once I landed my first New York engineering job. For as long as I can remember I’ve always been a dreamer, always imagining what life would be like if I just lived somewhere else where people would appreciate and care about me. So I lived my dream, traveling to New York, Seattle, and Atlanta only to find out all that I was dreaming about was sitting right here in the lone star state waiting for me.

I’ve not been blogging lately not because of lack of things to blog about but because I’ve actually gotten immersed in connected with family and friends for the first time in way too long. The novelty of being able to pop in to visit my sister and hang out while our children play together has not worn off one bit- if anything it makes me a bit misty that these little cousins will get a chance to be close friends for the rest of their lives. Most people would take for granted, but this is the first time in our lives my sister (raised in St. Louis) and I (raised in Texas) lived in the same state, let alone minutes apart.

To top off my linesisters have completely surrounded me with love and compassion. Poor EbonyDad was abandoned as Sunday as I was gone from sunup until sundown going to church, hanging out, and fellowshipping with some of my dearest friends. Discussing things with people that really know me- from time before I even really knew myself is very enlightening. I have a network here of peers who share common beliefs from spiritual to child rearing. My community which I worked so hard to build in Atlanta is vibrant, alive, and larger than I knew here.

Even with the uncertainty of the house situation I’m really enjoying being here. Ultimately the biggest lesson of this week is home is not a place as much as it is the people.

Yes my friends- our house is back on the market again. Our ever irritating and problematic buyers had one huge issue they neglected to tell anyone about- turns out their mortgage company was unable to approve them to buy our house unless their house is sold first. That’s fine in most situations, but our type of contract requires absolutely no contingencies so they are about to be out of luck when it comes to the ernest money they put down in deposit. The hardest thing in this is not the deal falling through (they were quite frankly very difficult people to deal with and have been dragging their feet for *weeks* on everything) but the fact that we have turned away quite a few inquiries of people interested in buying.

A friend recently told me that when you go through difficult, stressful times you shouldn’t view it as just hard luck but instead as a workout to strengthen your faith muscles. My faith muscles are being worked in ways I never knew possible and I’m standing firm knowing that ultimately this will all work out for the best.

We’re in Texas!!! While I should be calmly enjoying a relaxing stay in our corporate housing (with my husband who is actually getting to take a few days off) I’m fighting off letting the stress from this whole home selling process get to me. I have faith this is all going to work out at just the right time just like everything has thus far. The boys are adjusting great, they just can’t wait to go and see their cousins tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll have something very positive and wonderful to blog about tomorrow until then- we’re just happy to be all moved out!

We’re in our final days of being ATLiens, things are going well even with some surprising news. We were told that our house we be completed on August 26, and then a couple of weeks ago our builder called to tell us that they were moving our date to the 22nd. GREAT! August 22nd was perfect considering we’re leaving for Texas on the 17th. We’d spend one week in a hotel and be ready to start living in our new home. Yesterday we spoke with our builder because we are dealing with rushing to get all of our mortgage processing completed early and she was surprised since our house isn’t done until September 22. Umm it might have been nice if she had clarified that on her previous call.

I had to do everything in my power not to freak out - but her little communication error has turned out to be a wonderful thing. Because we will be needing housing for a month instead of a week we will be provided with corporate housing- which means we get a month with no mortgage, rent, or utilities to pay! Definitely a nice way to start things off financially, so our unplanned surprise could be one of the best things yet. Having faith and thinking positively is definitely a way of life I’m slowly learning to focus on instead of letting the perfectionistic worrier that lives inside me take over.