Two Days With No Water...

It's been an interesting week in the Gaines house! On Tuesday, we had a pipe burst in our garage between the well pump and the water pressure tank (who knew a screwdriver smaller than 2 inches could do that?!). I was inside the house working, and Dan and his Dad were doing some electrical work in the garage. All I heard was something thud (the screwdriver), and gushing water. I opened the door to the garage to find my husband dripping wet from getting the valve turned off. So we were without water for 2 days. As you can see from the picture to the left, the pipe looked to be living it's last happy days of holding water. We were so thankful that it happened while Dan and Ted were right there - we have half our garage full of packed boxes, and some furniture that some friends are buying from us - it could have been a huge mess had the pipe burst when we weren't there! It was definately one of those situations that was a huge frustration, but in hindsight it could have been much worse. Thank you God for (again) protecting us! We are still fighting with the home warranty policy we purchased when we listed the house as to who will pay for the repairs, so you can be praying for that to come through! Did I mention that we had our home inspections and appraisal yesterday?! The plumbers finished up yesterday morning, so I spent the afternoon wasting water to get all of the rust and sediment out of the system so we wouldn't have (hopefully) issues on our inspection! I think we are both ready to get this move done! :-)

Thanks for your continued support and prayers that all of these details will fall into place! We are closing on our house here on Thursday - July 3rd! It is just a huge blessing that we will have the proceeds from that sale as we make this move - God has definately provided mightily for us! We will be sure to keep you posted on Dan's job (the job in the Athletics Department at TAMUK was posted this morning...so we are praying that they move quickly - and of course, hire Dan!) :-)

God SOLD our house!!!

The Short Version...

We should be officially under contract today on our Indiana house - they offered us full price (yay!) and the only thing we countered on was closing/possession dates!

The Whole Story...

These buyers were our showing last Friday evening. They spent quite a bit of time at the house, so we were hopeful that they were interested. (We found out later that they almost didn't come to the showing because they had seen 10 houses already that day - Praise God that they came!) On Saturday - we went to the zoo with friends (shout out to Josh & Katie, and Jay & Em!) - and had planned to prepare the house inside and out for the Open House on Sunday when we got back. Change of plans...it was hailing and pouring rain as we got home - there were leaves and branches everywhere, cherries from our cherry tree smashed all over the driveway, the flowers were bashed into the ground, and the yard was flooded in spots. We were a little defeated, but kept telling each other that God wouldn't have let it storm like this if it weren't for a purpose. Enter that purpose... We decided not to go to church on Sunday so that we could clean up the yard and house and make sure it was ready for the Open House. So after spending the whole morning cleaning, yard-working, and even spraying what looked to be dog poo off the roof (see picture below!), we called it quits at 1pm to get showered and out of the house by 2. At about 1:37, Dan realized he had a message on his phone - it was FC Tucker (our real estate agency) saying there would be a showing on the house at 1:30...uh, 7 minutes ago. So we look outside and see people milling around as we are trying to get dressed and out of the house! Their agent was late (thank you Lord!), which is why they were roaming around outside instead of inside the house. When our agent arrived at 1:45, she brought them inside. They had a ton of questions to ask about the house (it was the same couple that looked on Friday) - that our agent probably couldn't have answered - but because Dan was there, they got all of their questions answered. It was just all God that we were there at that time. If it didn't storm so bad on Saturday, we would have gone to church and probably been out of the house by 1:30 that day. So...it was this couple who put in an offer! They offered us our full asking price (another huge praise!) and the only thing we are negotiating on is the dates for closing. On the contract they had us closing on July 22, but we will not leave until July 27. It sounds like they have verbally accepted our counter - and that we will be closing in the next few weeks - with them taking possession on July 28. We are just so thankful that God worked out all of the smallest details and orchestrated all of this!!

The Bottom Line...

PRAISE GOD for His goodness and provision! We are so thrilled with Him right now - He just keeps pulling everything with this move together in His perfect timing!

The Prayer Requests...

• Dan's job search - he has some very promising leads, two at TAMUK where I will be working! One of these is in the athletic department, and looks to be a good fit for him. We are waiting for the position to officially post, but my (Stacey) department chair has put him in contact with the Athletic Director pre-posting. Universities are often good about hiring spouses when they can, so we are hopeful that this will work out! He also has applied for positions at TAMU-Corpus Christi (ah - the rival school!) in their athletic department, and at various philanthropic agencies in the Corpus Christi area (American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, etc.). Pray that the details of his job will be revealed to us soon! We know that God has it all worked out, and are eager to see what His plan is! :-)


• Texas house - we had most of our inspections done last week, and will finish up today with the plumbing. Everything looks to be in really good shape, so we are thankful that the house is "healthy"! The only thing remaining at this point is the appraisal for our lender - this should be happening in the next week or so. Pray that it goes well!


• Indiana house - the buyers will likely be doing their inspections this week or next. Pray that these inspections go well, and that there will be no major defects on the house! Pray also that everything will progress smoothly with their financing. This house will also be appraised shortly, please pray that it will appraise for the price the buyers have offered us! We have made many updates to the house, and are fairly confident it will be fine!

Again - thanks so much for your prayers and support!!
We are so thankful that we serve a MIGHTY GOD!!

New News and Updates!

Some new news, and updates on some old news...and most importantly - ways that you can be praying for us!

• We are officially under contract on our new house in Corpus Christi! We'll be doing inspections (well, we won't - but the professionals will be!) on the home this week. Please pray that these will go well and that we will select the right inspectors for the job!! Our agent is going to be at the house for all of these for us - we are so blessed to have her helping us through this process!

• We have our first showing on our Indiana house tomorrow (Monday)!! It will be between 11am-12pm (EST) - so you can be praying for that! We know that God is bringing everything together in His time - and just have to remind our fleshly worries that HE IS ON THE THRONE and IN CONTROL!!!

• We received some good news this week regarding our home loan. It looks like we will be able to work with my (Stacey) hometown bank - and that the loan will NOT be contingent upon the sale of our Indiana home! Praise God! Of course, we are still praying for the sale of our home here in the hopes of avoiding the financial burden of paying 2 mortgages/home insurances/utilities/etc.

• Dan is still looking for jobs in Corpus Christi - he has applied for various philanthropic, event coordinator, and athletic positions. We appreciate your continued prayer for him to find a job so he doesn't have to be a cabana boy in chapps (please...pray! :-)).

• One last prayer request - please be praying for us to quickly find a new church home in Corpus Christi. We have done some searching online and found some nearby churches when we were out there - but ultimately we want to be where God wants us and where we will be most effective for His Kingdom! So your prayers for us to be lead by the Spirit in this (and all!) avenues of our move are greatly appreciated!

We'll be sure to update you on any new developments - we really appreciate your prayers and support during this relocation!