Update

Okay, so when I started this blog, my plan was to write on a regular basis and have a fancy background and become like a favorite blogger of mine, Pioneer Woman. Maybe not as famous as her, but along the same lines as her! However, it has become evident to me that I do not have the ability to do everything that I already need to do, let alone keep up a blog of that magnitude. I also didn't intend on only writing when life is bad. So I failed on both points. But, I will continue to press on in hopes that I can someday make this more of what I'd like it to be!

So, a quick update and prayer request. I'll be brutally honest. We are losing our home and are 4 months behind on payments. We are working with a HUD counselor, and while I have hope that he knows what he's doing, I am losing hope that he will actually help us. Everytime I call him, it's like starting over--this is who I am, this is why I'm calling, this is what you told me to do and why didn't you call us back--that sort of thing. We're hoping that he will help a loan modification go through with our mortgage company, although we've been preliminarily denied for now. We're also trying to see if we qualify through Obama's plan, but we've not got a lot of hope there. Today, I contacted our realtors to see what the likelihood of a short sale or even regular sale would be, and I'm planning on contacting a mortgage person tomorrow about refinancing. I also began looking at apartments online today, and pondering what the good would be in the situation if we do lose our home.

All this, and our cars are about to die.

But really, we're not sick. Our marriage isn't falling to pieces, although it could be better..but still, we're good. Our other bills seem to be manageable, for now. I'm still in school and we're still homeschooling and the kids are still able to do CYT, take piano and play some sports (all courtesy of Grandma Faye). We still have an adorable new nephew/cousin and family that loves us. And honestly, we've seen a lot of postives in not having this particular home anymore. We also figured out that we would be in this situation even if we were still in our other home that we sold last year. So the only main regret we have is that we used $10000 of Teddy's 401k to get this home and we would basically be losing it if we lose the home.

So, that is what has been going on. You may be wondering why we're in this situation. Did Teddy lose his job? No. But back in November his work slowed down for 3-4 months and we were already living paycheck to paycheck. So, really, that situation combined with poor money management skills and debt have finally come to a head. And, finally, our house payment was 52% of our monthly income at the time of purchase one year ago...when work slowed down, it became like 65%. So--in our desperation of our previous house situation--we did bite off more than we can chew. There's some more to that situation and not all of the blame is ours, but we are taking responsibility for it overall. Which stinks to learn a lesson this hard.

Hopefully, whatever happens, we will grow up from this and won't make the same mistakes again. In light of what hurts other people are facing today, I am grateful for our situation. And what could be a bigger adventure than apartment living, right? :)