Next Monday we will be moving to our new house. I am so thankful for our new house because it is truly a blessing for our family. Let me give you a little background on our current house.

Last September we found out we would be moving to Maryland, and had three weeks to move. This was during the time that my husband was recovering from his deployment injury, was heavily medicated and unable to drive. We were being transferred to Maryland so he could receive medical care, so we were grateful, but had little time to prepare to move. In fact it was not enough time for the Navy to schedule movers, so we had to move ourselves. We knew we wanted to live on the military base because my husband was not driving and I had to drive him to work. We spoke with the housing office and were excited to find out they had a 4 bedroom house available for us almost immediately. We arranged our move and had lots of help from family and friends. On the day we picked up the Uhaul, I drove to Maryland with some of our kids to pick up the keys and sign the paperwork to our house.

I signed the papers and took the keys to our new house. You can imagine my surprise when we walked into the new house and realized that one of the bedrooms was missing. The boys and I looked and looked for that fourth bedroom and finally decided that it wasn’t there. I called the housing office to tell them there must be a mistake, we had been given the wrong house. Well, we had been given the right house, apparently it was in the computer as a 4 bedroom, but it was really only a 3 bedroom. I was stuck. My family and friends were busy packing the Uhaul in Virginia, and ready to deliver our furniture the next morning. We had nowhere to go except this 3 bedroom house.

After much apologizing from the housing office and many phone calls between me and everyone else in Virginia we decided to take the 3 bedroom house and make it work. We would be given the next 4 bedroom house that was available. After about 2 weeks in the house we realized we didn’t want to move, we loved our neighborhood and our neighbors. Moving to a 4 bedroom would mean a move out of our neighborhood and into a new one. The kids did not want to move again, and neither did I.

We asked if we could go on the 5 bedroom list (which was over a year wait) instead of moving to a 4 bedroom. They agreed and the wait began. Two months ago my neighbor, who lived across the street from me in a 5 bedroom, told me they were moving. She was hoping I could move to her house, but there were 2 people ahead of us on the waiting list. We called the housing office and asked if there was any way we could have the house across the street. They told us we could only have the house if the other two people turned it down. A few days later I had a knock on my door. It was one of my neighbors who I had never met. She explained to me that they were #1 on the housing list and were supposed to get the house across the street. She then told me that she couldn’t live with herself if she took the 5 bedroom house while I was living in a 3 bedroom with 6 kids. She said she had discussed it with her husband and that she was planning on talking to the housing office the next day to let them know she wanted to “give” us the house that was offered to them.

As few days later my husband received a call from housing letting us know that we would be getting the house across the street. The housing lady kept saying, “you have really nice neighbors.” Isn’t God good? We had prayed that we would be able to stay in our neighborhood. My neighbor who moved told me she believed we would be getting her house. Through the kindness of strangers we are being blessed more than we deserve. And for that I am grateful.

You can see pictures of my new house here.

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