Friday after work Mark and I's realtor took us to look at 2 new houses and then back to the very first house that we ever looked at only a little more then a week ago. After looking at the 2 new houses, (remember we looked at 3 houses the previous week) we realized we really liked the first house we ever saw! It really was at the top of our list. It was in a beautiful neighborhood and met almost everything on our wish list. So we told our realtor at that point that we were very interested in this house.

The drawback? It was about $10,000 out of our price range.

Our realtor suggested to offer what we could and just see what happened. So we made plans to have our parents come and see the house and check it out before we made any serious offers on it. We value our parent's opinions and knew they'd be able to look for things that we might not know to look for. Things that might persuade us to look for other houses or pursue this one.

Saturday, however, all house plans were placed on hold and Mark and I enjoyed a full day at Busch Gardens with my family. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun riding rides, eating free meals [thanks Dad] and getting a lot of laughs from the howl-o-screamness of the night.

The next day, Sunday, [because thats usually the day after Saturday] we had plans to get our engagement pictures taken, but we pushed that back just a little so we could get our parents out to look at the house. Why the rush? The sellers had just dropped the price so it would be showing up on the top of realtors "hot sheets" and they said they had people coming to look at the house. We knew we couldn't be competitive with our offers, so we wanted to get ours in first. So our parents came out and ended up giving their "approval" for the house. [Aside from my mom's complaint that it's too far away] After the walk through with our parents we rushed back to get ready for our engagement pictures. Mallory and Erin took us out to Botanical Gardens and The Chrysler Museum and helped us take the most gorgeous pictures ever! Not to brag, but I'm really impressed with Mark and I's posing skills and the overall cuteness of our pictures! We're not super photogenic people but I guess when your really in love, it shows through in pictures.  [I can't wait to post the pictures once Mallory is done editing]

After engagement pictures we met with our realtor from 7-8pm to put in our offer. We signed the paperwork, and provided our earnest money deposit. We left her office feeling at peace with our decision and purposing to trust God and be happy no matter which way the offer fell. We thought we'd hear back from the seller by the end of the week- We never dreamed that by lunch time the following day, they would come back with a counter offer.  Their first offer wasn't in our range, but Mark worked hard all day Monday calling our lender and our realtor, crunching numbers and negotiating. By the end of the day Mark got them to pay closing costs which then put the house right in our range.

Long story short? We got the house! Pending the inspection at 2pm on Friday, Mark and I will be First time home owners.

This has all happened so much faster than we thought it would, but we believe God's favor has been on us and has provided us a house in our price range. Not only a house we like but a house that has many of our favorite features. We have learned so much and I feel we have grown up years in just a few days. What a huge decision to make in such a short time! But we feel this is the perfect house for us right now and we can see ourselves staying there for many years and raising our family there.

So without further ado... I'd like to introduce you to the future home of Mr. & Mrs. Mark Thomas Poindexter.