We bought a house!!

Amid some my hardest and darkest times our family has also received so many blessings. The day after Dad passed away Pete got a call formally extending a job offer with a different company with an office in South Australia. We knew this was on the cards but had put it to the back of our minds (well maybe just I had) while we were in Tassie in the weeks before Dad passed. Pete was head hunted for the role from an old Ericsson colleague who had moved to this company (Visionstream) a couple of years earlier. 

We had felt for a long time that we needed to return to Adelaide but it was still a tough decision. We had grown to love Melbourne and I particularly was so settled there and had made an amazing group of friends. 

When we got home from Tassie we started having a look at where we would rent. With a great pay rise we were now in a position to buy a house for the very first time but thought we'd need to rent for a while so we could house hunt properly. We still had a look online at lots of houses to get an idea of where we'd live and what our price range would be. 

Once word got out that we were moving a friend of ours contacted me and asked if I wanted some stuff she was selling. Her family were moving to the USA and were selling EVERYTHING. I bought a bookshelf from her and she joked with me that we could buy her house or car. I laughed but still had a look at the link she sent me on Realestate.com. Pete and I were sitting at the computer together and almost immediately realised it was the kind of place we were after and we really had a good feeling about it. I was a bit hesitant though as it wasn't in a suburb I envisaged living in. However, being one of the biggest suburbs in Adelaide we were assured by multiple people that there were good and bad spots. Having a brother in law as a Detective in the area certainly helped too as he knows where all the dodgy people he has to arrest all the time live. The house was at the top of a quiet cul de sac and in a fantastic location for schools and public transport etc. Of course, knowing the people selling it and knowing they were honest and good people we felt reassured that what we saw was what we'd get...and we really liked what we saw!

As Pete and I made phone calls and kept looking at the photos and then compared them to the other houses that had caught our interest we started to get excited. I said to Pete that I thought he needed to go to Adelaide the next day to check it out. So we organised a flight for that Sunday morning and he arranged to come back Mon night. Even though it was happening fast we were realistic. A couple of friends had said that when you look for a house you had to prepare to have your heart broken. We kept this in mind as Pete left the next day. Obviously, it's no surprise that Pete loved the house in person too and we decided to make an offer...However, there was another bidder. Another guy from Melbourne. I'm sure he felt like we did, in that you'd be paying double the price for a place like this in Melbourne. We knew our bid had to be decent. We were given one shot to place a bid. Whoever offered the most got the house. We decided a price and said to each other that if it wasn't successful that we would just shake it off and look again. After all, it was the very first house we'd put an offer on. During Pete's whirlwind visit he looked at 3-4 other places but there was no comparison. He'd also rushed to the Bank to arrange a pre-approval for the loan. It was crazy but so exciting. Pete arrived home about 8:30pm Monday night. Our friends were leaving for the USA the next day. We were still waiting to hear from the Agent but Pete sent a sneaky text to our friend to ask her if we were successful. She said something like "Thank you so much!!" We tried not to get excited as it still wasn't an official call but we felt it was going to happen. It wasn't too long until we heard back from the Agent that our offer had been accepted and that our desire to go for a 1 month settlement was good too. Everything proceeded so quickly and with very minor difficulties. We loved that we could just move straight into our new home in Adelaide and began packing pretty quickly. 

Mum commented during that time that she felt Dad was watching over us and 'had a hand in all this.' I agreed and felt so grateful that one of our dreams was becoming a reality. It wasn't that long ago that I was lamenting about not being able to buy a house. It's great to read back over that post written 3 years ago and realise just how blessed we have been. Our first home has exceeded our simple dream. I'm not saying the house is perfect but it is perfect for us!

So I guess I need to share some pictures. I'll just share photos of the outside for now, as we still have a lot of unpacking and sorting to do. We've been here 5 months but it's been a pretty rough few months so I'm trying not to beat myself up about living in a bit of a mess still. 

Henry had no idea what was happening but was happy to pose for photos!

And Will too of course. 

The boys loved playing in boxes for weeks after we moved. 

Our front yard. It's enormous and has 3 gorgeous established trees. Even though the gum tree roots blocked the toilet I refuse to get rid of them. So glad my awesome brother Sim put his trade to use when he visited us. Thanks so much for unblocking the drains Sim. x

The Maple tree is gorgeous, except for the horrible spiky balls of doom that spread across the whole backyard :-)

The garden has been pretty well maintained. Though we have lots of plans for it!

I'm sure a lot of you would be aware of our first major project - building a shed. Isn't she a beauty. She deserves a blog post of her own!

Mum bought a cute swing for the tree and will 

finally stop nagging us about it now that it is up. 

We love the yellow gate at the front...though aren't keen on the fluro yellow front door :-P

We have a lovely view of the Onkaparinga hills from our front yard. Of course my poor photography skills are not going to do it justice. 

This is a quick shot of the backyard...though it doesn't look like this now...we have to use it as a thoroughfare to cart dirt etc for the shed so the lawn is pretty hacked up. Sorry about the random pose Will is doing. Funny kid!  

It's in shadow but this is what the back looks like now...Notice the house next door! Hopefully they'll finish building it in the next 8 weeks. It's been a slow process...but not too bad. 

So it is an old house. It was origingally going to be a Doctor's surgery so it has a few quirks and odd design features. It was built in 1969! It has 5 bedrooms and has been completely redone on the inside so is quite modern. I love our wooden flooring and the lovely carpet in the bedrooms. The kitchen is a bit of a downer but it is still functional...and we really do love that wall oven Eden! The Asbestos roof is a killer but maybe one day..if we win a lot of money or something, we could replace it. Of course it all depends on if we stay here long term. I really hope we do. I don't want to move again until the kids are way older...or at all really. I love our place and want to establish roots in this area. 

A warning to readers, the next photo will be a little disturbing....

Pete ran into this 'little' guy during the first week of living here. It freaked us both out. Gotta love Australia for these critters. Urghhh. Needless to say I've used some pretty effective surface spray around the entire house and we haven't seen any of these orb spiders since. And, we've seen much fewer millipedes. 

This last photo is also just for fun. As I was unpacking the boys rooms I pulled out the drawer and discovered Will's doll. I let out a big yelp. She freaked me out big time. Ha ha. Still better than a spider though don't you think!

Though Deepening trials...

I've been feeling conflicted about how I want to approach this post. When I began this blog I knew that I wanted to be candid about my life, very much like I am in person. With the explosion of social media it can be difficult to accurately convey what your life is truly like and one can come off as having a "perfect life." I am an avid blog reader and appreciate the bloggers that document the good and the bad. 

I'm not saying I have been deceiving the world, because I really am a happy person and I feel incredibly blessed in my life. I have so much to be grateful for and realise each and every day that I need to do more to help others who are not so fortunate and I have a long way to go in becoming a better person...

January has been like a hurricane. I have rejoiced as I witnessed wonderful friends welcome babies into the world and I my heart has ached as friends experienced absolute tragedy. An old friend of mine passed away suddenly last week and a lovely couple from mum and dad's church ward lost their beautiful baby girl. On top of this tragic news I have been struggling with the deteriorating health of my father. When we returned to Melbourne after Christmas dad very suddenly became unwell. Of course he wasn't in great health over Christmas, but his pain became so bad that he began having falls and he couldn't even get out of bed. He was admitted to hospital about a week ago and his meds were tripled to combat his pain. He was sent down to Hobart for another PET Scan to see what was happening with his cancer and the results showed that the cancer has basically doubled since his last scan in October 2013. 

We are at the point where there are very few treatment options and dad is consulting regularly with a palliative care doctor. We did learn that he is eligible for a trial drug therapy and there is a last ditch treatment of intense chemo that he can have...but at this stage that could very well kill him in his current condition. Mum and Simeon are pretty tender at the moment and Reub is concerned too in his own way. Reub is just incredibly hard to read and not outwardly expressive...I have faith that God works miracles but I'm just not sure whether we're going to get the miracle we are hoping for at this time. It is a bit of a wait and see game and we can only pray and press forward, trying to be as positive as we can. I'm really proud of mum, who has been a lot more patient and positive these past few weeks. Simeon has been a good support to her but I know she needs me there. I'm planning to take the boys there in the next couple of weeks and see how things are going. I have no doubt that cuddles with Will and Henry are like little miracles in themselves!

Pete and I also have some big decisions to make for our family. Possibilities of a new job exist in both Melbourne and Adelaide but we're also open to relocating to Tassie if we feel that's what we need to do. Mum and I speak almost every night and she is constantly saying "I wish you were in Tassie." I would live there in a heartbeat but it's not a simple matter of finding a job for Peter who works in a niche area of Engineering. He'd be happy to take a basic job for a couple of years but we have to think about his future and what is going to be best longterm for our family. We want to establish roots in an area and really just feel settled. We just feel torn as their are so many paths we can take and we just don't have a clear idea which road to take at this time. We know that with continual pondering, prayer and discussion we will come to a good decision. It's just so hard being in limbo. I am feeling quite unsettled and I'm also getting little sleep as Henry's sleeping and feeding has hit what I hear is a typical 4 month old regression stage. 

We are going to visit the Melbourne Temple on Saturday and are looking forward to the inevitable feelings of peace and closeness to our Heavenly Father that we experience in that beautiful place. It is a place for prayer, reflection and learning. It will be a long overdue visit for us. 

In Limbo...

I'm sure many of you will have experienced one of those times in life when you're stuck in the same situation waiting on answers that are totally out of your control before you can move forward with important life decisions. All you can do is wait and try and get on with life, even though you can't plan more than a few weeks ahead. 

For a control freak like me, this is VERY frustrating. 

Back in December, Peter and I were having a really nice talk. It was one of those conversations that went for hours but felt like minutes. We did a lot of reflecting about the direction our lives have taken - especially since the birth of our gorgeous boy, Will. We then spoke about whether we were happy. We knew we were still deeply in love, and that we were smitten with Will and adored parenthood. Whilst I was missing work, I still felt that I needed to be at home with Will for the time being and Pete was loving his job even though the pay was ordinary. We both missed Adelaide terribly though. We'd settled well enough into Melbourne. We attended a lovely ward and had made some nice new friends but we felt a hole that was left because we had few family members around and very few CLOSE friends. The ones we have are like gold though :-) 
The time it took for Peter to travel to and from work was also taking a bit of a toll. 

Peter then said something about possibilities of moving back to Adelaide. As he said this I had a sudden and discernible warmth fill my heart. From experience I recognised this as the sweet and gentle influence of the Holy Ghost. I told Peter what I felt and I was surprised to hear he had felt exactly the same way at the exact moment I had. 
I thought for a few moments that I may have exaggerated the feeling because I just wanted to move to Adelaide but because Pete felt the same way we were both sure that it was a prompting that moving back to Adelaide was the right thing to do. We talked about it some more and discussed whether it was likely Pete could get a transfer with his company to their small Adelaide office and he said he'd look into it. 
After a few weeks of considering and Pete inquiring with his line manager he told me that Ericsson are in the process of finalising a contract with a company that will require a lot of work throughout Australia. Apparently they have already budgeted to send an engineer to the Adelaide office for this contract. Pete told his manager he would love the opportunity and the manager said if it all happens he'd be the most likely candidate to go. 

Anyway, here we are almost 6 months later still waiting on confirmation that this contract will go ahead and if Pete will be sent to Adelaide. We still feel we need to move to Adelaide but we're not sure HOW that is actually going to happen at this stage. There is absolutely nothing we can do to speed up the process so being patient is very hard. Especially when we have a lease that runs out early June etc etc.

I'm sure it's going to happen but it could be as soon as a month or two or as long as a year...In the meantime we are trying to just live life as it comes and not worry so much about planning for the future (at least in a temporal sense). This is something I'm not all that good at. Maybe that's why I'm having this experience ;-) 

Always get a second opinion

Since getting pregnant, this popular advice has been a saving phrase for Peter and I. I've always been one to err on the side of caution when it comes to anything medical, and often just have trouble putting trust in others full stop. Whilst I don't like this quality in myself, I am happy that I've been in tune to it over the past few months, and feel that together, Pete and I have made decisions that were truly right for our family.

I'll share an experience that demonstrates why I'm reflecting on this at present.

As you'd know, Pete and I moved to Melbourne just before we had Will. Something we found difficult was finding a way to continue with my antenatal treatment in the manner we were used to in Adelaide. After a lot of research and asking others for advice we found a hospital close by that we were happy with but the catch was that we needed to see an external Obstetrician. We decided that it was worthwhile forking out $400 bucks so we could get in to a decent hospital and get weekly checkups until baby was born. Without going into too much detail, the OB had a terrible bedside manner and I was a bit sceptical about some of his advice...However, when it came to the delivery, he was brilliant - a real technician and the right person to deliver Will. All the midwives agreed he was 'interesting' but they would have him deliver their children any day.

At our post delivery check up last week, our OB urged me to have Will circumcised. I won't go into details, but he said he needed it done for legitimate medical reasons and I was prepared to have it done if it was in my son's best interest. When I got home I just felt odd and ill at ease about the idea. If we'd wanted to have the procedure done, we would have done it much earlier and why was it a sudden rush to have it done? Things seemed to get rolling so quick with setting up an appointment etc and I felt a bit pressured. We had to go to our local GP to get a referral so I decided I'd not just ask for a referral but get the Doc to do an examination and get a second opinion. I saw a wonderful female doctor and she told me that if Will was her son, she wouldn't have it done. I had a strong feeling at that point that my OB was motivated not for my son's good health, but for the extra cash he'd get for doing the procedure. I didn't want to put Will through such a traumatic and irreversible procedure just so some knife jockey could notch another surgery under his belt, and score some cash along the way.
I know this sounds cynical, but I have been so aware that there are many people in the medical industry simply in it for their own progression. I am so glad I got a second opinion and together with following the promptings from my Heavenly Father, made the best decision for our son at this time. In the future, we may need to consider this procedure, but I want it done for the right reasons.