One thing to cross off the waiting list

Daniel is HOME!!!!!! After finding a house in Fayetteville (or so we thought, but more on that later...) he called Wednesday night to see if we wanted to pick him up at 9:00 the next morning. Well, of course! We BARELY made it in time because of traffic; we ran from the van all the way to the gate and arrived just as the first group was coming off the trams. Phew. It was a good thing he was in the back of the plane. The girls had dressed in their Sunday best and made signs for Daddy. Jackson made a sign, too, although it was a little less understandable. :) The girls ran to him as Jackson watched from the stroller. Jackson didn't seem strange with him at all...he wanted to hold Daddy's hand as we walked to baggage claim, he wanted to hug him, and he called him "Dada." He didn't want to let go of his hand for Daniel to get the bags off the conveyor belt. :) He's been fine with him the whole time except when Daniel put on the kaffiyeh he brought back with him (the Middle Eastern headdress). Then Jackson totally freaked out, screaming "Mama, Mama, Mama" until Daniel took it off. Apparently Daniel looked like a terrorist to him.

So we've been enjoying the two unexpected days as well as the weekend with him where we got to worship together as a family again. How glorious! We've been to the Children's Museum of Tampa, the pool a couple of times, and we've played a number of games of Uno. The kids have also been catching up on some Daddy lap time, and Daddy reading time. Abigail just came into our bedroom this morning, looked around, and said, "Where's Daddy?" I said he had to go work today (he's saving leave for the move). She said, horrified, "Back to Iraq??" :) She was much reassured to hear that he'll be back for dinner, although I think she still thinks he's coming home for dinner from Iraq.

So the housing situation is...on hold. Daniel found a place he put an offer on, the owners counter-offered, and we declined the counter-offer. The owners don't seem to understand that the property will most likely be appraised by the VA at much less (going by the comps for the area) and that they are supposed to accept the VA appraisal. The wife of the couple is the one in the military and she's already gone on to the next duty station. The husband, who is from Trinidad, doesn't speak English and has been left behind to negotiate the home sale. :) They don't have a realtor, so our realtor has been trying to explain everything to them. We don't feel like fighting them when we still haven't sold this house and because we have a second, more-appealing choice that's closer to church and work in Fayetteville. I was dragging my feet on that one because the kitchen was small, but we've been creative in coming up with solutions that might work. Our biggest problem now is to get this house sold. :) Daniel has completed the paperwork for the federal government buy-out program, but he's encountering problems with the command at Ft. Bragg in living up to their end of the deal. If they sign for relocation, they agree to the buy-out program where, if our home doesn't sell in sixty days, they take over the sale of the house. If they receive an offer in the 30 days subsequent to the sixty day marketing period, then they will review the offer to accept it or decline it. But if it still isn't sold by the end of that thirty days, then they will buy it at "market value." We know that that market value will be less than what we would want for the house, but at least it will be off our hands. And because the market was so crazy last year, we still stand to make a profit even after only owning the house for a year, so we're very thankful for that. We have until the 25th (or around there) of this month to sell it on our own, which we would prefer to do, obviously. We're meeting with our realtor today to adjust the price again. We didn't put it on the market before April 1st because all indications were that it would sell pretty quickly, so now we're in a time crunch to try to sell it before we leave so that we can afford to buy a house in North Carolina. Otherwise, we'll have to rent, and we might have to make two house payments for 1-2 months. Yuck. We're doing all right, though - just thankful to be together as a family and thankful to be moving to the real south in about a month. :) Here, every third car has an Ohio license plate - no offense to my Ohio family! :) :)

Well, I'll just share an Abigail comment before I sign off to start the day here. I can hear children neighing in their rooms, so the horses are up. :)

At church last night, the pastor was preaching on troublemakers in the church. When Abigail heard the word troublemaker, she turned excitedly to me and said proudly, while pointing at her chest, "That's me! I'm a troublemaker!!" Well, I guess it's good to be aware of your role in life and to be proud of it. :)

Love to all-
Casey