“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

-Romans 5:1-5

Since I posted last, the weeks have been a total blur. Sometimes I really feel like building character is for the birds! There is just one issue after the other with our house and the move but this verse is very helpful when I need a reminder that the trials that we go through are here to make us stronger in our faith.

officially on the market

The house is officially on the market. We have had one showing and we will have one tomorrow morning! The first couple liked the house but said it was too dark, to each his own I guess. I was kind of hoping that the process of getting the house ready, putting it on the market, and correcting whatever the relocation company inspectors found would not be stressful because we have the help of the relocation company but that has not been the case. Don’t get me wrong the relocation company has done a great job and I am very pleased with them and the process, it’s really just the house…

This week I have been making calls to contractors. I have informed all that I have called that I am taking several quotes, in the hopes that they will compete (somewhat) for the bid. Today, I received my first bid to do one part of the work. The gentleman is under the house for maybe 5-10 minutes and comes back to tell me that it will be somewhere in the $8,000 range to fix the problem. I say ok and I will look for his official estimate in my email. I receive the email just a few minutes ago and his estimate is $9,300. WHAT!? The next guy that comes to the house is under the house for 20-30 minutes and then talks to Chris for another 20 minutes, and gives Chris an estimate for $2,500. So clearly the first guy saw a female and said “oooo I can tell her stuff and it will scare her into paying this much.” The third guy, who is under the house now, said “hmmm $2,500 seems high”, which sounds good to me the cheaper the better!

(insert soapbox) It is extremely frustrating and insulting, in my experience, auto mechanics, contractors, really any man in an profession that requires a service to be done to a home or car can see me as a female and say “o here is a good opportunity” and really think that it will work. What makes it even better is that it is normally a troglodyte that can’t even speak proper English when they are trying to tell me my home is about to cave in or my car is broken, when really there is nothing wrong with either! I am sure many women reading this know exactly what I am talking about, just because God gave us boobs doesn’t mean he didn’t give us a brain! I am sure many husbands can attest to the fact that if it weren’t for the women in their lives nothing would ever get accomplished. In our house Chris calls me his “day timer”, really it’s more like personal assistant… “yes sir, you have 3 PM and 4 PM and then a meeting in the morning at 8…blah blah blah. Alright enough of that rant.

Thai language class is going great! I am learning to read the squiggle lines! We are learning how to read from the same books that Thai children learn from whenever you start reading, around 6/7 years old. I can relate to the seven year olds stress of learning how to read, but at least I am getting it, slowly by surely! We received our report cards the other day, which Chris reluctantly shared with me and I am proud to report that out of the five categories (beginner, survivor, intermediate, autonomous, and expert) I am in category #2! I’m a survivor (queue Destiny’s Child music) but Chris…not so much. I still have 3-4 months of classes that I can take and I am hoping to be in the intermediate category by the time my classes are complete.

We are still very excited about the opportunity and can’t wait to get over there and see the world.

Keep our family and us in your prayers or have a mass said for us, which would be awesome!

Until next time….