FSBO

We've finally made it to the point where we can be officially up and running as "For Sale By Owner."  We've painted some, organized, pitched, given away, and repaired as much as we could before listing our home on zillow.com.  We have signs up now.  We are only five days in and we've had plenty of drive-by traffic and calls.  Thankfully, it hasn't been terribly stressful either so far.  We still have some things to get done around the outside of the house and it will be really nice when the green of Spring comes back and brings life back to the outside.  We are looking a little dead these days.  Anyways, we love this neighborhood and we are prayerful that the right family will find our home and continue to enjoy it as much as we have.

Other things we've been working on:

1.) Contacting more churches for partnership.  We have an upcoming presentation at a local church in April that we are excited about.

2.) Figuring out how best to get and use our funds with the least monetary penalty while in Poland.  We've decided that a mixed method of using a U.S. credit card with no foreign transaction fees and our normal bank with a designated account will work best.  We haven't had a credit card in a very long time.  Felt sort of weird applying for one again.  We did Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace and still believe credit cards aren't good but for our purposes, it should save us money on fees that our bank would charge and we can pay it off immediately directly from our American bank account.

3.) Scheduling Jordy for surgery.  He has two metal implants in his right knee that need to be removed before we relocate.  They were implanted to further straighten his right leg out.  These implants can't stay in for too long or the bones start to grow around them making them difficult to remove.  So, we will have them taken out on April 2nd which should be an outpatient surgery.  When we come back to the U.S. and closer to Jordy's adolescence, we will revisit the growth of his legs.

4.) Looking into international travel guidelines for our two dogs.  The good news is that travel requirements aren't too bad into the European Union.  Our dogs have to go to an APHIS accredited vet to have a health screening and they have to be up to date on Rabies.  Nothing terrible.  Then we have to mail the health certificate to KY to get the stamp of approval from the USDA and we should be good.  All of this is supposed to be done within about 10 days of travel.  Sort of reminds me of doing adoption paperwork again.

We've had several people ask us how we are doing lately.  I'm not going to lie, it's hard not to get incredibly sentimental.  As we comb through our belongings deciding what to get rid of and what to keep, there have been moments.  There are memories tied to our stuff and it is just stuff.  There are memories attached to our home but it is just a house.  None of these memories change our long-term goals but they do bring about little pockets of emotion.  I thought I was ready to pitch some of my memory boxes.  I don't have many but some I thought I'd be ready to pitch.  But then I opened them up to see what sorts of treasures I'd find and I promptly decided that I'm not ready to part with the memories yet.  One box my mom collected for me is full of report cards, crafts, awards, etc.  As I was digging in this box, I came across a class compilation of creative stories written back in second or third grade.  Maybe fifth?  Anyways, it's silly but it was that little booklet that convinced me that: 1. I didn't have time to further sort this box.  2. This box would bring me a great deal of joy in the future to go through.  3. The tidbits contained in this box still bring back all sorts of memories that are vivid and stored somewhere in the back of my mind.  4. I'm not ready to part with those yet.  Having said all of this, we are excited for the new memories to be made in our new adventure and those memory boxes are keepers that I will forage through joyfully in the future should time allow.

Just for fun, here are just a few pictures and tidbits I found.  It's funny what we chose to keep for memories.  Don't judge my collection but do enjoy. 😉

A sweet note from a sweet young girl along with an ornament.  Had no idea I saved this but it instantly brought a smile to my face.

Eew!  Courtesy of Dr. D.J. Frounfelter.  I wore this lovely appliance to correct an overbite I think.

Probably a Sunday nap by Grandpa Barr.  He and grandma had side by side recliners in this very early edition manufactured home with paper thin walls that I loved visiting.  I remember waking up early in the morning to the sound of Grandpa shaking his vitamins out of his vitamin organizer.

My dad is going to kill me for sharing this one but this brings back memories of moving to the country because we had to live in Kosciusko County.  This house gave me a love of country living and space to roam.

One of many class pictures.

I became a big sister!!!!!  One of the best days of my life ever.  :)

A card that my sis sent all the way from Canada from her and her friends when we lost our first foster baby to a legal loophole.  This card still brings back a flood of emotions both good and bad but God is good!  I now have the incredible honor of seeing my second baby boy on a regular basis and get to keep up with him.  💗 

London 1997.  What an incredible trip of a lifetime.

This baby boy is a senior in high school and the old man in this picture is over the hill.

My mom sent this to me in Kindergarten on my birthday.  It started what became a collection of over 300 stuffed animals.  Thankfully, I weeded out all but this 9 years ago.

Bachelorette weekend in Chicago.

I was 6 years old when I rode on my first airplane to Phoenix, Arizona to see my Uncle Kurt and Aunt Beth Anne.  The pilot gave me these wings.

Two of the most beautiful little girls in the whole wide world still today and I got visit them and their momma and dad on their day of birth.  I dressed the one on the right in that dress for her first baby picture.  These two are high school and middle school already which makes me older than I feel.