Prayers have been answered! Our Atlanta house has been rented. Just a few days after I e-mailed our blog advertisement around, a family from out of state came to Georgia to look at it and wrote a check for a deposit on the spot. They will move in the day after our current tenants move out. This is such a huge, huge blessing. I'm so pleased that they can love on and enjoy our house and the furniture in it. The dad will be the assistant athletic director at Georgia State (Nathan's alma mater), and the son will be in the same class as my first group of students at Whitefield. I hope he feels cool living in Mrs. Parker's house.
Speaking of moving... Sadly, we'll only be calling The North Barn home for a few more weeks. We've absolutely loved living here. With a house full of character, fabulous neighbors, a great landlord, a central location, gorgeous surroundings, and a historic house and gardens next door, it was ideal... except for the price. It wasn't so much the rent (which was "much" in itself) but the cost of utilities that was making our heads spin. The high ceiling with its 13th century beams was nice to look at, but it wasn't insulated well, which made staying warm very difficult. Some nights during the winter Nathan and I could see our breath when we got into bed. Keeping the heat on all the time was very, very expensive, and we knew after the first few bills that we were going to have to look for something else.
We were extremely stressed for a while there. The money we had saved for our three years here was depleting rapidly because of our international student fees and the very high cost of living. The dollar is not as strong as the pound, so seeing our reserves disappear 1.67 times faster than we anticipated was extra painful. In our first 10 months, we blew through two thirds of our savings. We wondered how were were going to be able to stay for two more years, especially with me not having steady work.
Enter God's provision...
I got a job (an amazing story in itself) that starts this fall, and then our friends the Griffiths put us in contact with some of their friends coming over to Durham to study. Any friends of Carter and Liz's were sure to be friends of ours! We "met" Cullen and Pamela McKenney over Skype back in April, and it turns out that we have all kinds of crazy connections. Pamela had questions about looking for teaching jobs, and hopefully I steered her away from making a lot of the same mistakes I did.
Anyway, I'm not sure how, but we soon were talking about the prospect of sharing a house. Several other couples we know (some in Atlanta and some here in Durham) have done it and it seemed attractive for several reasons: 1) It would save both couples a grip of money, and 2) It would force us to be an intentional Christian community. We decided to pray and see if this was something God had for us.
Very shortly thereafter, I heard about a house that another PhD couple was moving out of at the end of the summer, and it sounded like the perfect set up: a tall, skinny townhouse with three floors. Each couple could have its own bedroom, bathroom, and living space. We'd share the kitchen, dining room, and another living area. It's very near other church family and it's a two minute walk from the big Tesco. It's about a 25 minute walk to town and 15 minutes to church.
After several more months of conversation via Skype, e-mail, and Facebook, we decided to go for it. With my new job and the money we'll be saving living in the house with Cullen and Pamela, we will be able to recover our losses from this year of waiting.
But wait! The North Barn came completely furnished, and the new house isn't. Furnishing a three story, five bedroom house ain't no joke. God has provided for us hugely again! I contacted all of the PhD families we know who are moving away from Durham this summer, and many of them either gave us stuff or sold it to us for cheap. We've got beds, couches, wardrobes, a dining room table and chairs, bookshelves, desks, kitchen things, etc. for a fraction of the price it would cost to buy at Ikea or Tesco. Thank you, Lord!
Last week we put Jake and Eddie to good use and made them work for their dinner by helping us move about six car loads of furniture.Very unlike when we first set up shop, The North Barn is looking more like a charity shop, and it's a bit chaotic. I have to keep reminding myself that it's only temporary.
Nathan's seat is really far forward, don't you think?
Nathan's study is next to the furniture jigsaw puzzle upstairs. I'm afraid it might just topple over at some point.
Bookshelves and a mattress line the stairs.
Upstairs. Yikes.
Those would be mattresses and box springs on top of our wardrobe, The Princess and the Pea style.
Now, I'm sure you'd like to meet Cullen and Pamela, wouldn't you? Let me see if I can find a picture...
Well, here is a nice looking couple. This picture should go in a magazine. Oh, wait! That's THEM!
You'll be seeing lots of the McKenneys on the blog in the future. They arrive on August 11th, and they'll be staying with Sam and Emily, our first English friends, until we move into the house together on September 1st.
We'll miss The North Barn, but we are so grateful for our time here. We've been able to make great friends, live close to town and especially to church, host lots of people, etc. Thankfully, Cullen and Pamela's lifestyle is similar to ours, so I'm sure the house will be full of people quite a lot. We're looking forward to starting this new chapter with them in just a few weeks!
