Blue Christmas......

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. It also marks exactly two months ago that we finally got our final permit after a delay of several weeks, clearing the way for us to get financing, the final hurdle between us and our pretty new home. But two months later, here we still sit in this tiny old dump, waiting for word that we have gotten our financing and can proceed to have our home moved from the lot six miles away to our acreage. When we finally got that last permit, I felt confident that I would finally have a nice home to decorate for the holidays -- room for the good-sized nativity set I bought which instead is still in its boxes, room for more than a 2-foot tree, room for the various other holiday embellishments I'd admired in magazines and on area streets for many years.

As December rolled around, I realized that likely wouldn't happen. But I at least thought we would have officially been approved and that I would know we would have our home in a matter of weeks. Maybe it will happen next week, because we seem ever so close. But for now, for this Christmas, we continue to W---A---I---T....every day, every week that goes by being yet another week that I am denied from at long last being in my home. I am trying to focus on the reason for the season, and yet I admit that this Christmas, my heart is broken. I didn't have the heart this year to decorate this dump at all - and I still haven't mailed Christmas cards, waiting to at least be able to let people know that we now know we would have our home in a matter of weeks. Instead, I will mail belated cards on the 26th with the non-news that we are STILL waiting.....

A week and a half ago, it seemed fairly certain that by Christmas, we would have an answer on our financing and be on our way. A woman came to visit our property from a lender on the other end of the metro area and visited with my husband. Our broker told me shortly thereafter that it looked very promising. Then the lender decided they needed our last FIVE years employment history instead of the usual two. My husband gathered that info, but it was delayed getting there due to the largest windstorm this state has ever seen nine days ago. An 80-foot tree fell on our gate and smashed its right panel, and our power was out almost 5 full days. There was similar damage and outages over the entire metro area. I phoned our broker 3 days ago but was told he is on vacation all this week and his associate had no info on the status of our loan application. I left the broker a voicemail asking him to please let me know when he knows something. If you are reading this, please send up a prayer that we will be approved in the coming days. I can't believe this entire year has gone by and we are still sitting in this dump, one hurdle away from finally being in our home that is sitting there waiting for us six miles away. Merry Christmas to all, and like I said in my mini Christmas newsletter, I trust that at this time next year I will be able to say we have been in our home about 10 months.....