And now the rest of the story

No, this is not a post about Paul Harvey. I left you all hanging last week and I know your inquiring minds want to know (Rod!), so here it is...

I am elated, excited and relieved to announce...(drum roll)...that we accepted an offer on the house! Just when the doubts and worries were starting to roll in, a decent offer appeared, as if it just fell from the sky. As I mentioned last week, this seems to happen quite often and it still amazes me. Because we hadn't had any activity for a couple of weeks and we had already shut the door on two offers, this was completely unexpected. Who could be submitting an offer? No one has been by to look at the house. Well, as it turned out, it was from one of the couples who had submitted an earlier offer. We had countered their original offer but could not find a common ground so we all walked away. Apparently, they didn't walk too far because they came back with a significantly higher offer. It's still a little lower than what we had hoped for, but we only differed by a few thousand dollars and although that is a lot of money, we didn't feel like it was worth bargaining at the risk of losing it altogether. It still surprises me because they were the first people to look at the house, they only looked at it once, and they didn't even come back for a second showing before deciding to submit a second offer.

We still have to get through the inspection and the loan approval, but needless to say we felt a huge weight lifted off of our shoulders. This was really the only thing left that could have delayed our plans, so it will be nice to have it out of the way. And the timing couldn't have worked out any better. Our closing is scheduled for March 16 and our new home is scheduled to be delivered around the same time. So we are hoping to be rolling down the highway in early April! YIKES!! Can that really be possible??!?

So you're probably wondering why the delay in sharing the good news. Well, when it rains it pours. Just as I was worrying about being jobless with a mortgage, not only did we sell the house, but multiple potential employment opportunities were presented to us, literally within 24 hours of signing the offer. We have been in communications with a campground owner for a workamper position for several months. We were interested in the position but couldn't commit since we didn't know when the house would sell. They were gracious enough to agree to hold the position for a few months in hopes that our timing would work out. So just as we were ready to contact them, these other possibilities showed up. We had some thinking to do and because they follow the blog we didn't feel like we could make the announcement.

Having options is a good thing, but sometimes too many options is just plain overwhelming. While the workamping position would be very different from what we know and certainly the type of change we are looking for, the pay is not great. On the other hand, the other possibilities are opportunities to remain working in the professional world via remote access. This is certainly appealing from a financial standpoint, but it feels a bit like giving in. Although we'd be living in an RV, we really wouldn't be changing our lifestyle much from what it is today. And isn't that really the main goal? It bothers me that even after all of the growth I feel we've experienced during this transition, I would still consider making a decision solely out of fear. The only reason I was considering the professional opportunity was because 6 months worth of work could have provided financial security for the next year. That's pretty appealing. But when I dug deep, I realized that I don't want to sacrifice our life just for security. I know that there may come a time in this journey where I have to rely on my professional skills to make a higher income, but I don't want to start out there. So for now, I have decided to let my opportunity pass. Who knows, maybe it will resurface again someday when I'm more willing. Tracy also has a potential opportunity which is still pending, but we don't believe hers will be as invasive or restrictive, so we'll see how that plays out in the coming weeks. Maybe it will be the best of both worlds - a little financial security while still being able to live the life we've dreamed of.

So after all of those sleepless nights, we are exactly where we hoped we would be at this point. The house is almost sold, we'll be able to afford the new RV, we have a job lined up for the summer, and we are still able to meet our timeline of hitting the road in April. So why did we spend so much time worrying?? Once again, I just need to believe. After all, isn't it obvious that we don't have control over this plan? We're just along for the ride.

Words of inspiration: We have no choice of what color we're born or who our parents are or whether we're rich or poor. What we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we're here. ~ Mildred D. Taylor, author