Sharing Our Flight

So excited :)

Just wanted to announce that we are officially

"home owners."

¹home

noun \ˈhōm\

: the place (such as a house or apartment) where a person lives

: a family living together in one building, house, etc.

: a place where something normally or naturally lives or is located

While we did not buy a house, we did purchase our first home in the form of a 5th wheel camper!

Here's the grand tour and how this came about :)

Owen's new hiding spot.

The welcome mat. Come on in! :)

So, why buy a camper? We've tossed the idea around for a long time but it never seemed feasible.

In theory it went like this... Take whatever we are paying for rent and multiply it by 12 months. Whatever the answer is, is how expensive of a camper we can afford. Find a camper for that price. Live in it for a year and pay it off. Live in it for another year and save enough for a hefty down payment on a house, or land, or whatever. (or maybe a truck to pull it! :P)

Sounds good right?

In theory it sounded great to us.... But until now it never worked out. We either didn't have a predictable income or there wasn't a camper in our price range or if there was - it was a dump and not worth it to us.
And did I mention we don't have a truck? yea. It was a far fetch.

So, we kept it as a little dream but kinda stopped looking. We resolved that if it's what The Lord has for us then it would happen in His time.

Then, one day we went for a walk. There is a park in a neighborhood down the road from our house that Owen loves.

While on our walk I saw a for sale sign for a fifth wheel camper on a chair in someone's driveway. $7,995. Next to the house was a VERY NICE (brand new) fifth wheel.... And I thought, "surely it's not that one" ... I knocked on the door and asked about the sign and she told me they keep the one that is for sale at their farm and they can bring it into town if we are interested.

We were very interested.

That was on the weekend.
Tuesday the following week we got to check it out for the first time.

I loved it :)

The man told us that if we were thinking about living in it we should try it out for a weekend and see if we actually like it. He gladly offered to pull wherever we wanted to stay and let us try it out for free!

The ~~only~~ master bedroom :)

Did I mention that I loved it?

We went over our situation to see if we could actually take the jump.

We would need to get a loan.

Find someone to take over our lease on our current place.

And figure out how much it would cost to park it.

Our landlord gave us the "cleared for take off" and already has many applications in to take our place once we leave.

We found out we can stay at Mission Aviation Fellowship's RV lot. (which is awesome because willie can just walk across the parking lot to work!)

We got approved for the loan at the bank.....

.....And we bought it the next Monday!

We ended up getting it for 7,500! which is a steal for a first home right!? :D

We haven't moved in yet, but it looks like we will start packing up and doing that this week.

I can't wait to move in and meet all our neighbors :)

There are two other MAF families that stay in their 5th wheels year round, as well as many volunteers and missionaries coming and going all the time.

Yes it is small.
But not too small.
It's just right :)

Not only will this allow us to put our "rent" money to better use, but it will save us money on traveling in the future too. With my family in SC and Willie's in WI, airplane tickets can rack up really fast with a family of 4. (especially since owen needs his own ticket now, and Emma will also need her own in a year)

Speaking of Emma :) there's our little chunk. practicing her parade wave.

There will definitely be some adjustments. Like this tiny sink. It's as deep as the palm of my hand. And apparently as long as a wash rag. I'll let you know how that goes :)

Another deciding factor for us was wanting to set ourselves up for whatever God has next in our lives.

If we partner with a mission's organization, part of our time will be traveling around raising support before we leave. The camper will let us travel where we need to but still keep a "normal" family routine (and not have to pack and unpack our stuff all the time).
Not to mention, when we come home on furloughs we would have a place to stay that we can travel around in to visit family.

To be honest, we don't know what's next in our journey. But we do know we are willing to go wherever God leads us. So for now, this is our best shot at some flexible stability and we couldn't be more thankful.

...and this is for free -- there are tons of families (with kids) full time RVing! who knew? Lots of inspiring blogs and videos. google it :)

I figured since it has been 5 months! since our last post.... it was time for another.

I have been meaning to post for quite a while now, but it seems like every time I was going to, a new development would happen and I would want to wait until I had more details...

Well, the details and changes have stopped piling up :) and we are finally at a breathing spot.

So here are some pictures!

Once upon a time, I was pregnant with our second child.

She was born, and we named her Emma Joy.

6lbs...13oz? maybe 14? (It was 7 months ago folks!) :D

And then there were two.

Real life.... He really does love her. :)

Owen likes taking pictures of himself.

One month and one week ago we found out Willie was accepted for an internship at Mission Aviation Fellowship in Nampa, ID.

One week later - we moved!

This is the backyard of our new place :)

Willie built me a raised bed for mother's day :)

I found some "free poop" on craigslist for my garden :D

(seriously... that's what I searched for)

My mom got owen this "motorcycle" (as owen calls it)

He rides it... pretty much every day.

There is a park right down the road from our new house.

It was hot :P

Can't believe she's 7 months old already!

Owen making some friends in the sand pit.

(never met a stranger)

There is a paved trail behind our house that follows a little stream.

We're about 20 mins from Boise. This is a picture of the mountains around Boise we saw on our way to Zoo Boise.

Owen's, Emma's, and My first time to the zoo!

Waiting for the zoo to open.

The monkeys were my favorite.

They had an awesome dinosaur exhibit throughout. They moved and made noises and some of them even spit. Owen thought they were real.... and didn't want to get to close.