LIFE UPDATE!

So for those of you whom I haven't talked to recently or updated....

WE BOUGHT AN ACREAGE! :)

Most of you know that we have been looking on-and-off for the last 2 years.  It has been a big roller coaster and been a huge faith builder for us!  It's been very difficult to find something that is close to Lincoln that isn't outrageously priced due to the high-demand for acreages in the surrounding Lincoln area.  

We looked at the place that we ended up getting about a year ago when it first went into foreclosure.  It was still pretty high at the time and needed a lot of superficial work done so we decided it wasn't in God's timing for that place and left it alone.  About 2 months ago, I got a random e-mail from a listing site online and the house was re-listed through a government foreclosure (HUD) program.  Basically, they drop the price and it turns into a silent auction for 1 week.  You have no idea what other people are bidding, how many people are bidding etc.  You also can't have inspections (if you want your offer accepted) or warranties on the house applied...it's a leap of faith type thing and you just have to hope that everything is working! (For those of you that know Dan, that is a HUGE risk :)  We prayed about the decision A LOT over a 5 day window and one day Dan woke up with a number in his head and we went with it.  We really (OK, I really) didn't think we were going to get the house as over 25 people went through it the first 2 days that it was re-listed!  Anyway, the deadline for finding out if we had won or not was 5pm and we got a call 10 minutes before the deadline that we had won the bid!! :)  *Large amounts of excitement entered here* 

After finding out that we had won the bid, we listed our home the next day. (Super sad as we LOVE our little house and have so much emotionally and physically invested here)  We had a lot of interest in the first week and ended up with an offer that we accepted 11 days after we listed.  Needless to say we couldn't be happier with how smoothly things are moving and are very much seeing God's hand in all of it!

We closed on the acreage on the 15th last month and started demo and re-modeling about 1 hour into owning it...true Thornton/Bontrager style! :)  I am attaching a link to a FB album (for those of you that don't have FB) so you can see some of the beginning pictures of the place and I will periodically update the photos as more is completed.  We have already moved 95% of our stuff out of our Holland house and are moving in with my parents (bless them!) for about a month as we finish the re-model.  (our HOPEFUL date of getting in is the first week of April)  There thankfully weren't any "huge" things that were broken (heater, AC etc.) and were able to fix many of the "problems" within the first weekend. 

We have already had numerous friends and family members come over and help with many things and we are so thankful for all of the support and help!  My parents bible study came over the 2nd day we owned it and did the "demo"...it would have taken us weeks to do it ourselves and they got it done in about 7 hours!  We have been working non-stop (every day and evening!) with a lot of our family members on projects so that when our cabinets and new floors come in we will be ready for the installers to put them in so we can get our stuff moved over and move in! :)

Well that's the nutshell...just thought you might like to know!! :)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152571767870244.953487.759520243&type=1&l=ce35838995

(link for pics is above)