We have been a little stressed with how the timing of this move will all work out. Will we sell our house when we need to, should we rent it out, should we go to Oklahoma with Clay during his training, should we move to Dietrich for a few months during Clay's training, should we move straight to Spokane and get settled there, oh decisions, decisions...and its frustrating when some things are out of your control. So, Clay suggested we start making a moving calendar that was constantly subject to change, but at least it was a place to start. We originally planned to head up to Spokane right after school was out, but decided to push it back a few weeks and go the first of June as soon as Cub Day Camp was over. We headed out hoping to receive answers to all our unanswered questions... First, we decided to head to Oklahoma and see what Altus had to offer as far as rentals for a family of 7 and a short term lease at that. We were happily surprised that we found 2 potential houses that would work wonderfully for our family if we chose Altus. Peace and blessings knowing that we had an option. Next came the drive to Spokane, which took us through the curvy, beautiful roads of Colorado. Lots of ski lifts and beautiful mountains. We saw storms, but never went through them, we always were either ahead of them or behind them enough to miss them. We felt very blessed and watched over on the drive....however, Laura had a strong impression that she didn't really want to do this drive in the dead of winter... so she started hoping and praying that they found something in Spokane. We took a stop in Dietrich where we said hello to the family and dropped off a few kids. While in Dietrich Laura started contacting property managers about homes in Spokane that we wanted to see while we were there. One company had 2 properties that caught our interest. So Laura called and scheduled a showing. The lady on the phone told her there was an application for both adults that was $40/each $80 total and if we did the application, they could hold the property for us for a few days. Laura and Clay didn't really want to spend the $80, but Laura wanted peace of mind knowing that their favorite property couldn't be rented out from underneath them and it would be guaranteed to be available for them to chose. So, Laura spent a few hours working on the applications, submitting it, submitting documents, etc. to get the application done. Well, they got it done and sent it off. The next day was supposed to be a down day in Dietrich, but Clay and Laura were anxious and ready to get to Spokane, so they left a day earlier than planned and started out with Erica and CJ. Wow - what a quiet drive! Jimmy Jones to the rescue - CJ's request. We got to Tri-Cities at dinner time where we met up with Becky at a Greek restaurant. During dinner Laura gets a phone call from the property managers office saying our application was approved and we needed to come in and pay the deposit of $2200 by the end of the day. ??????? Confused, Laura questioned the lady and said what? This is the first I am hearing about this.... why do I have to pay a deposit when we haven't even seen the properties yet? Now it was the other lady's turn to be confused. What? You haven't seen the properties, but you filled out an application? Laura then explained her conversation that she had with the other lady the day before. This lady denied that Laura was told that they would hold a property - they never do that. Laura said they needed to uphold that and hold a property because that was what she was told and why she did the application and paid $80. The girl asked if they could move the showings to the next morning instead of 2 days out and Laura said, "Actually we are coming a day early, so that would work" so the girl said she would contact the tenants and get back to Laura. When she called back she said that she scheduled the 2 properties for the next afternoon, but there was also a third property that just came on the market....would we like to see that one to located in Liberty Lake. We said yes,and she added that house to the showings. Both Laura and Clay were a little annoyed and frustrated that this company had lied and told Laura one thing and then demanded somthing else, but decided to go and view the properties the next day and see what happened. Well, the next morning, we took time and drove past all three properties and immediately ruled one property out solely on its location at the top of a hill...not going to happen. Clay had visions of Preston putting Erica in the little push car and letting her go...and down, down, down she would fly....nope. Not even going to go there. Laura envisioned snow and unable to get home in icy weather. So 1 down, 2 to go. The other two houses were in good locations, one was in Spokane Valley and the other in Liberty Lake. Nice neighborhoods. same rent.. but a lot would depend the interior of the homes. When it came time to view the inside it was a "No Brainer" as the property representative called it. The liberty lake house was by far the nicest, biggest, and the best fit for our family. Since we had already done the application the whole process was smooth, easy and done within minutes. We signed the papers, gave them our deposit and we were done. Our week long house hunting trip just got condensed to 1 day! We did hang around Spokane for an extra day as we explored the base, schools, parks, motorcycle potential spots, etc. We know that the Lords hand was there in getting us this house - for the price we got it for, the location, and that it came on the market the day before we got to Spokane. IT wouldn't last long - and we got it. We feel very blessed. Even though the situation looked awful at first, it ended up being a huge blessing.
**CJ got REALLY sick for 3 days. The whole journey up to Spokane. Blessing: No one else got it. Poor CJ was miserable for about 3 days, lost tons of weight, didn't eat for a few days, had 1 walk of shame, but survived!
**Additional blessing; We needed orders before we left on our trip to Spokane, and we got them the day we needed them. Whew.
