The REST of the Story....

I have debated, and debated whether I wanted to post this or not. I have mentioned about getting a new house a couple times and people are asking about it so I guess it is time to come clean.

Unfortunately, like all Beckie stories, there’s the short version (which I call the Swiss cheese version---full of holes and some interesting parts are missing) or the long version (which I call the boring, but complete version). I am not sure how to tell both, and personally never opt for the Swiss cheese version, so I will go with the long and if youd’ve preferred the Swiss cheese version you can skip to the end and avoid the boring parts.

We moved to Utah. That part is indisputable. We were not thrilled to be here. That part is disputable, depending on the day. It was a huge sacrifice to leave Omaha and we did not necessarily want to go. We were not even looking to leave, but there was no question we were supposed to go for some reason. I knew it would be hard for the first year (under the circumstances) which I was okay with...I left Omaha chanting “I can do anything for a year”…

As it turns out, a year is a long time… When we got here things were not exactly the way we expected. I cannot go into details about that, but those of you who know me well know the battle we encountered when we got here. You know the pain and the heartache we witnessed (and felt). You know we felt disillusioned (and still do about some things) you know we did all that was required of us and then ultimately had to let the Lord bear the burden for us and go about our lives (which we are still trying to do).


Anyway, We love Utah and love being with our family we have just felt lost. We knew we had to just "forget ourselves and get to work" to find what the Lord had intended for us to do here. We have been getting really involved in our ward (which I was scared to do since we knew we were leaving soon). We teach the Marriage and Family class, I am also the activity day’s leader and Rich is the Media specialist (which means he goes into people’s homes and sets up their computers to help with internet safety). We are hopping all the time. We have made some very real connections with people here and find ourselves getting more attached with each passing week.

We have been looking at houses, lots and lots of really great houses. There has been nothing wrong with most of them they were just not our home. This just added to the angst we felt in leaving our home in Omaha.

Interesting (and very important) side note, at some point during all this Rich’s old employer expressed an interest in him returning to Omaha (of course AFTER our house sold). I cannot even tell you the elation that I felt at the prospect of returning HOME. After many conversations (and a long few weeks) everyone involved agreed that it would not be financially rewarding for anyone involved to make it happen. It is for the best really, that would have been like giving the kid having a massive tantrum in the store the candy they had been crying about…


Anyway, one day while searching I found an interesting prospect and sent Rich to check it out on his way to get a hair cut ...he came right home and got me to look and, well, WE FELL IN LOVE. It is a short sale, which means it is in the step before foreclosure. It is not even completely finished. There is no carpet yet, some electric work needs to be done,the yard is unfinished etc… We put an offer on it but let me interject here , the word SHORT SALE has absolutely nothing to do with the length of the process for acquiring one of these homes, we have been back and forth and back and forth for over a month.

The seller accepted our offer the very next day and then we had to work with the bank. The bank accepted our offer eventually (after several counter offers and negotiations...) and then the seller refused to sign the papers because the bank will come after him for the balance…then he said he would, he just needed to talk it over with his wife…the bank gave him till noon Friday and then they were moving forward without him. That’s where we are at. It is now Monday way past noon on Friday, and no word from him. The bank is moving forward (I am certain that will mean some sort of a wait on our part) and I am glad cause I am at my “hurry up and wait” limit.

We have been blessed for certain. There have been so many obstacles with this process it has been crazy ( believe it or not, this is still shorter than the entire story...). We have felt like this is THE house from the first glance. I have continued my prayer that as we move forward if at any point we are supposed to stop that the Lord will stop us, but until that moment arrives, we are going to press forward.

There have been times that it felt like the door had been closed, only to have a huge window open that was better (and easier to use) than the door. Things we think will be bad work out great, things we thought were good turn out better than we had anticipated. It has been an interesting ride that’s for sure. I haven't wanted to say anything 'till I knew something for sure, but I guess its as close to that point as it will get.

For those of you skipping ahead, we put an offer on a house, its looking good. That’s all I know… (see, isn’t the l-o-n-g version lots better?)


I have tons more photos, but you guessed it, they are on the camera...maybe I will remember to have Rich show me how to do it AGAIN when he gets home...