Being thankful...

This is the time of year that we hear it the most. "What are you thankful for?" I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. There's always a plan. Sometimes it just takes us a while to figure out why something happened, but then one day there's a realization.
This past year with all of this house "stuff", there's been a few of those moments! The biggest being when the last buyer for this house backed out. We were devastated. We liked her, we had a rental house in a good location with a floor plan that would work for all of us and in this market, we were just plain happy to have a buyer.
Here we are two months later with another buyer and the reality is that this is a full price offer-the previous, we were taking a loss, these people are so nice & warm. The husband got down on his knees to be on Alena's level when he talked to her. I liked that. :) The last rental house was really nice, but small. The girls were going to share a room and there would be no family room or spare room for anyone to escape to for peace! The house we will be leasing for the next six months or so (pictured above!) is a 4-5 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, salt box with 3 working fireplaces, on a beautiful horse farm. The house is large and made to look like it was built in 1773. I LOVE it.
I can't help but think that it's going to be peaceful there. As soon as I found the listing, I said to myself, "THIS is where we are supposed to be for Christmas."
So, where things stand now: contracts have been signed by the buyers and my parents on this house and the VA appraisal was done yesterday. Our realtor, who is an appraiser was here for it and she said it went great. Now we wait for a week or so for it to come back and pray that it appraises high enough for the buyer's VA loan. That is the only thing that can get in the way at this point.
The house to lease is ours, we're waiting on the papers to sign, but we should start renting as of 12/1. The owner said we can come in over Thanksgiving weekend to get started though.
The builder is more than ready to get started on the new house. Since we are hopefully close to a closing here, we are waiting for that instead of getting started with a bridge loan.
Everything just feels right now and I'm thankful for that!! As well as my amazing girls, my family, my best friend, group of friends and my career.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.