The Sparrow's Nest: The NEST

I am going to take a big risk and write about something big happening in our lives before it happens. It is still possible that it may not happen but I have a feeling in my spirit of confidence and of even providence. I see the events as though watching the actual hand of God bring things to pass that He has been working on for years.

We are in the midst of buying a house.

To even write those words is surreal. We have always hoped, we have prayed diligently and still I am surprised that God is answering our prayer. I had faith that if there was a house out there for us, it would all come together at the right time and be a smooth process.
ONE WEEK ago today I invited my dad on a walk around Deer Island as a belayed birthday hike. (He had been lecturing in the city the evening of his birthday and in light of his recent heart attack, I wanted to acknowledge his life. I arranged for the rest of the family, Grandma Darragh, Mom, Emma, John and the kids and Mary and Sean and their kids to meet us at Dr. Insomnia's in down town Novato as a surprise. I got a call from Emma during the hike saying mom was running late so when we finished the hike I tried to stall our arrival at the coffee shop by taking a quick drive by where I knew a house was that my friend Moriah had looked at buying. John and I had seen the house online a few months ago but when we discovered how close to the railroad tracks it was we decided to not even look into it. A commuter rail is due to be completed in 2015 and that would mean trains would be going by all the time. When I actually saw the house in person I was intrigued and when we finally were sitting in the back patio area of the shop with scones and coffee, I mentioned it to mom. Her response was "lets walk over and see it!" So we did. My mom saw the house and right away called the realtor. Her interest increased mine and by that afternoon, Gail Koren, a dear family friend and neighbor was showing the house to us. At the end of that visit John was highly motivated to buy it. Of course Gail being the veteran realtor in Marin we discovered that we were quite blessed to have her on our team. She knows everyone in this business and just how everything works. Once the ball was rolling we found ourselves running in front of it like Indiana Jones. Gail was calling and emailing us every few hours and we were jumping around gathering info. We submitted our offer on Tuesday and on Wednesday Gail called saying "wanna buy a house?" meaning the offer had been accepted! I drove right over to the job John was working at to tell him in person. We were both in shock. We called those who had lent the money for the down and thanked them. Then, the ball started rolling faster. Today I spent the entire morning gathering all of the detailed info needed for the bank. During all of this time, John had more work than he could handle and was working at a job that had spotty cell service. I was at home caring for kids and their friends, driving to swim lessons and discovering poopy diaped toddlers going through my purse and stabbing themselves with Grace's emergency glucagon syringe. (That last one had me pretty shocked but he was ok and I ended up having to pray and pray to get focused on the paperwork I still had to do) This afternoon I took the stack of paper work in to be scanned and emailed to the bank. Phew!
That is all of the details that stay in my mind after this crazy week. I have hardly slept and find myself awake at night thinking of all I need to do and all the work the house will need if we get it and how we will pay for the repairs (it is bank owned and sold as is and needs a couple of things like a new deck, repair of the furnace and the sidewalk in the front needs to be fixed as the old elm tree has buckled it.) John and I have prayed together often and late into the night. We both feel that this place is for us and we can plan to be here for the rest of our lives. Our children are young and we hope to have their spouses for dinner here.