Its official. Mark and I have begun the house hunting process.

We met with a real estate agent on Saturday, and discussed the necessary steps we had to take in order to buy a house. She gave us a lot of information and also took a lot of info from us regarding what we were looking for. We even set up a time for next Saturday to begin driving around and looking at houses. Of course this depends on whether or not we can set up a time to meet with a lender this week and get pre-qualified. We are beyond excited!

Its amazing to me that its actually time to start this journey.  For months, long before we were even engaged, Mark and I began daydreaming about our future house. We would drive through neighborhoods talking about our favorite features. Whether we liked brick or siding, a two story or a ranch. We discussed our "must haves" [a master bathroom for me, a wall where mark can put his projector for him] and our "wants" [a front porch for me, a back deck for mark]. We debated location. We discussed our likes/dislikes regarding floor plans. We imagined how many rooms we would need/want for our future family and what we would use the rooms for until then. [marks hoping to finally be able to set up his drum set thats been taking turns between the back of his 4runner and his garage]. We would even spend down time at work searching through zillow.com and emailing favorite houses back and forth. We would critique and reply until we both had a good idea about what we wanted in a house, but this was all in fun. They were simply day dreams about "some day".

Sometimes during our trips through the neighborhoods we would let ourselves get lost a little and wander to what we call the "rich section" of neighborhoods. Here we would drive by very large, very expensive homes and imagine that we had high paying jobs that allowed us to have gigantic pools in our back yards and bathrooms with jacuzzi tubs. We would pretend that we had a boat or a couple of jet skis in our drive way that we would take down to our beach house [because obviously if we could afford one of these homes we could afford a beach house... isn't that how it works?]. Sometimes we would plan what our home theater room would look like or our giant foyer. But always after we left the "rich section" and we would drive back by the "normal" 3 bedroom homes that we knew maybe had more than 1 bathroom... it was there that I could actually see our life playing out before us. I could see reality. A small home filled with struggles and victories, occasional tears and lots of laughing. A small house occupied by the man of my dreams, me and our future family. It was then, as we drove by, that I would fall in love with the small brick house. Not for what it was but for what it represented. And suddenly, as we drove by, all of the imagining and day dreaming about the "rich section" lost all of its appeal. The only thing that mattered was the man driving me through these neighborhoods indulging me in my day dreams, and the life we would "some day" be sharing.

Now our day dreams about "some day" are beginning to become reality. We couldn't be more excited - or more scared. We have big decisions ahead of us, big important decisions. We are praying for guidance, because we know we are entering unfamiliar territory for us. I am praying for guidance for my Mark because I know that while we will be making these decisions together, he is the one that will be  picking up the financial and emotional responsibility that these decisions bring with them. I am praying that God will show me how to help him carry this load within the the role of a biblical wife and helpmeet that God has laid out for me, so that this responsibility will be a joy for Mark to carry and not a burden.

We fully trust that God has a plan for our future home and we pray we will be diligent to follow biblical principals so that we can honor God with our decisions and be a witness to friends and family around us.