Three Years of Living...in a RV, continued!

Welcome back friends!  We are continuing on our journey with my friend Tracey.  If you missed last week you will want to start there to get caught up.  Join her, and her husband, four kids, and several pets as they continue on God's journey...

We were adjusting to life in Wyoming and counting down the days to retirement. We began praying about where the Lord would send us after retirement and what job my husband would do.  We never even thought of the possibility of being moved to another base and continuing our military time.  As you may know, God has his plan and sometimes that isn’t the same plan that we make for ourselves.  

God gave my husband orders to move.  

Now this brings in plans to sell our house because we didn’t want to have a rental house so far away. We had heard terrible stories from others in the military that sometimes this just doesn’t work.  We contacted the Realtor we used to buy the house and had her list it. This was in Feb. of 2010.  She had told us that the housing market had been bad in other areas but it hadn’t hit Wyoming yet.  I think it must have hit the minute we signed the papers to sell the house.  We were supposed to move in July of that same year, so we thought that would be enough time.  Wrong!!!  (As I said earlier, I homeschool our children ranging in ages of 9-14.  Not very easy to have people come into your house and look around while trying to school) We didn't get many people looking at the house since in Wyoming it was cold and snowy a lot.  July finally came and we still had no one interested in the house.  We had decided that we could use our camper to move to our next base.  We were sure if God had given us the house and the new orders, that He would sell the house too. 

Really, how long does it take to sell a house anyway?  

We pack all of our household goods, clothes, and belongings on the moving van.  We kept out 2 weeks’ worth of clothes, a few pots and pans for cooking, and a very small amount of keepsakes that we wanted with us and loaded the RV.  We were confident that as soon as our house was empty it would sell. I was thinking late August or at the latest September!

With every military move we have made, I always try to make it an adventure for the kids.  It helped when they had to leave behind dear friends and things they were familiar with.  This worked better when they were smaller.  We started on our new journey that the Lord had for us and just trusted in Him to work out all the details.  I had said that there was NO way we could live in that camper for more than 6-8 weeks... I mean we have 6 people, two dogs, and a ferret- not to mention school was going to have to start soon after we arrived at the new base!  We were sure that we would have a new house by then. 

While waiting, we parked the camper at the campground on base and started our adventure.  It was one of the hottest summers in Louisiana and we found out that our little camper air conditioner was not a match for that heat.  It was like a metal box heating up in the sun. Oh wait, that is what it was! It did ok most of the time but we did have to go buy some fans to plug in and have air that circulated to get some relief.  I also learned that the crockpot was going to become my new best friend.  It isn’t the easiest thing to cook for a family our size in one of those campers.  My pots were as big as the stove top and some of my baking pans couldn’t fit in the oven.  The biggest problem was that all that was on a GAS oven and stove.  This makes it hot and when it is 110 degrees outside the last thing you want is to have open flames inside our little metal box called home for now.  I had someone tell me to try the crockpot and it helped tremendously!

The kids started out with the idea of this was like a vacation and things were kind of FUN for a short time.  Meanwhile we are still praying for the house to sell.  As with any new city we move into we start looking at where we would like to live and where to find a church.  We found one of the best churches we have ever been a part of.  Keep in mind, while at the campground on base we were still paying our house payment back in Wyoming. 

September came and went and still no sell of the house.  We had left it in the hands of a realtor and would check in with them and find that some people had looked at it but no bites on it. Not even an offer.  By October our church pastor offered to let us move the camper to the church. They had camper hook ups for visiting missionaries, so we moved. We told the pastor we didn’t think it would be much longer for the house to sell. Good grief, it had already been 8 months. 

How much longer?

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It's me again! ;)  Are you thinking about it yet?  What it would be like to live with YOUR family in a small space for 8 months.  We have done it for about 2 months.  I am telling you from experience friends it is a challenge.  Yes, the first few weeks are fun like glorified camping.  But then the space seems to shrink around you and there seems to be no place to go.  

I was in touch with Tracey sporadically during this time.  Guess what?  Not one word of negativity. Not one!

What would your attitude by then have been?

See ya back next week for the next part of the story!

Blessings,