Almost Home...

We have a contract! Hurray! After two weeks of house-hunting, I'm happy to report that we have agreed upon terms with a new landlady and are working through the referencing approvals stage with a goal to move into our new home next Tuesday. I have learned so much through this process, not the least of which is - nothing works the same as "back home". Everything is different... But we can adapt as we grow! And mainly, God is so good. He teaches me patience so I'll trust Him and learn to grow my faith, but He definitely knows our needs. Here's the success story, in loads of detail, for those who are interested...

I saw our new home yesterday afternoon. The asking price was a bit above the tippy top of our housing budget, but the listing agent indicated on the phone that she thought the landlord would be open to a lower offer. I was early for that first appointment, so Brooks and I strolled the block and then sat on the front stoop to wait for her. Across the street from the building is a small fenced-in private park, which can only be accessed "by subscription". It's intended to be used only by those who live in that block... big trees, shady places, grassy bits, it's really charming. If you've seen the movie Notting Hill, it's something like that... So I sat there dreaming about chasing Brooks through that park next summer... can you picture it?

When the agent arrived and let us in, I realized that this place really is ideal in so many ways. It's a "raised ground" apartment - just perfect for us... It just has a few stairs, about 5 steps above street level, but there is a lower ground floor apartment below us with a daylight cut-out underneath our window. That works well for security, if we want to leave the windows open, since there is good separation between our unit and the sidewalk. It has floor to ceiling windows in the “Reception” - that's what they call the living room - with very high ceilings. The kitchen takes up one corner of the Reception so I can make supper, do dishes or laundry, whatever, while Brooks plays in the same room. There are two bedrooms, both "doubles" as opposed to a double and a single... a standard single bedroom only has space for a twin bed. We saw several of those, and while that would work well for Brooks' crib, it won't work for our queen sized Aerobed that we plan to need when some of ya'll come and visit us! :) There is a full bathroom with a tub (good for Brooks' bath/play time) and a "shower room" - literally just a closet with a tiny stand up shower and a itty-bitty sink with a shaving mirror. It's smaller than an airplane bathroom, but hey, it serves it's purpose! The whole thing is carpeted, but it's very clean, the baths and kitchen are both recently updated and it has an appropriate amount of furniture. Not too much crammed in but not too sparse to make it feel like a home... Oh! and the kitchen is just about perfect. The washing machine also works as a dryer (sort of) and it's NOT tucked under the entry stairs outside. The fridge/freezer is the biggest one we've seen in the UK - certainly not large by American standards, but definitely adequate... and there is even a tiny little dishwasher - what a luxury! There are plants in the unit, truly it feels like the person before us CARED about the place.

I made arrangements to meet the estate agent back there with Eric after work and wandered through the neighborhood. The place is just 2 blocks from the convent where I used to live 10 years ago. I still recognized some of the streets! Incredible! But before the agent met us back there, she called to alert me that after speaking to the landlady, she was afraid that she had been mistaken and that the landlady was not willing to flex much on the price.

So Eric arrived, and he agreed that the place was ideal for us, extremely livable and less than 30 minutes from his office. After whispering a super quick “come to Jesus meeting” about our finances in the second bedroom (while the agent entertained Brooks with her key ring), we put in a verbal offer on the spot for the max we could pay. The agent called the landlady right then who countered over the phone. We said that we really couldn’t go any higher. I could hear the estate agent selling us to the landlady (“they are a lovely little family, and I really think would be very good tenants for you”…) but she wouldn't drop any further. We prepared ourselves to walk away. (Agony!) The agent ended the called and said that the landlady asked for the chance to consider it overnight, to which of course we agreed. I walked out feeling deflated – we were so close and still… not… there… yet…

Across the street from the flat is a darling little pub and I suggested that we soak up some sunshine and debrief about the day and all that had just happened before we headed home. Eric agreed and we wandered in a daze to the outdoor tables. I had just gotten some food out, ready to feed Brooks (who had been such a trooper throughout all of this!) when I heard the agent calling out to us. The landlady had called her back and said that she’d like to meet us in person and that she could be there in 10 minutes. Well, of course! (I’m so glad we decided to stay in the neighborhood!!!) As we had never gotten to this point in our other (three!) offers, I took it as a good sign, though I wondered what she would be like and how this interview would go.

I didn’t have long to worry. She appeared within 10 minutes and the agent motioned to us from the front porch to come over again. We walked inside and a lovely, very polished, petite British woman of Indian descent smiled warmly and introduced herself with an apology for dragging us back over again. Apparently she owns the entire building as well as the building next door (16 units plus?) and she cares very much that her tenants all get along with each other and with her (as she self-manages the building). After sizing us up for about 20 seconds, she said she just wanted to make sure we’d “fit the building”. She stated again that she was taking a lesser amount that she wanted, but she agreed that we did fit and she accepted our offer! Hurray! It seems that most of her tenants are in banking, so it was a very good move to tell her that Eric worked for PWC!

She said her sister had been in the hospital for about a month after a major complication in heart surgery and she just wanted to have the unit rented and be all done. Her only request was that we get the paperwork and contracts done quickly, so we could move in by next Tuesday – perfect for us, as that’s when we have to be out of our temporary accommodations! At the end of the brief meeting, I told her how glad we were to be her tenants and offered my hand... And she reached out and hugged me! How adorable is that?! I can't tell you how I almost burst. After all our flat-hunting angst, it made my heart sing to be so warmly welcomed. I practically skipped out of the building. After putting down the holding deposit (so she wouldn’t show it to anyone else) and filling out some paperwork at the agent’s office, we headed back to our temp housing to celebrate our our new home.

Today has been filled with more moving details, mostly gathering references, figuring out how to wire money to ourselves internationally (not as simple as Western Union ads indicate) and trying to locate our container of household goods that’s floating over here from Chicago. Brooks and I went on a three hour walk again today and I just savored not having to schlep all over the city looking at more flats. Hallelujah!

Thank you for your prayers, friends. It has been a joy to share all of this with you! Pictures will come as we’re settling in, hopefully next week.

Thank you, Lord for a home.

Prayers Answered

I just realized that all four specific requests re: the flat we found were answered with a clear and immediate YES!

The Landlady came down off her price to what we offered her.
Eric liked the place a lot.
The Landlady met us and liked us, too.
And we secured it with a contract that night.

It's just amazing when that happens!?! Wow!

Take 4

Friends, I think I've found it... again! I can't begin to describe all the incredible ups and downs from the last 36 hours of flat-hunting. It's almost good enough for a stand-up routine. Surely, candid camera or "Gotcha!" is going to pop out from around the corner and tell me this has all been a joke - just trying to see how well we'll adapt to our new country!

But the good news is that the place I saw this afternoon has almost everything we put on our wish list. Eric is on his way from work to meet me and Brooks and the listing agent for a second showing. I'm hoping we'll put an offer in tonight. Basically, we just need to get the landlord to come down on the price just smidge. Will you also pray that ...

A) Eric likes it.
B) The landlord likes us.
C) We secure it with a contract ASAP.

I realized today that I've been house-hunting pretty close to full time for more than a week. With a baby. With no car, only walking and using public transportation. (can you picture me hauling Brooks up and down the steps to the Tube lines each time I need to board a train? There are no elevators on the lines I'm taking...) In arguably Europe's most expensive city. By myself. Wow, can I just tell ya'll how proud I am of myself!?!

But seriously, no wonder I'm tired... Lord, please help us wrap this one up!

This weekend

This may come as no surprise, but I think a weekend free of all house-hunting duties was really a good thing for me. Yesterday, Eric spent an hour or two poring over the details of the new batch of listings that the relocation company sent us, but other than glancing at those with him, I really tried to steer my mind away from the topic.

Saturday we slept in a bit, then had breakfast and played with Brooks around the flat. Since our shipment of stuff from home will be sitting on a dock for a while, as we wait to move into our new flat, we decided that we needed to procure a few more diversions for the little guy. We went up to Piccadilly Circus and then strolled down Regent Street to Hamley's, the UK's largest toy store. Whoa! A whirling, flashing, ringing, squealing, brightly colored mob scene attacked our senses as we attempted to find pre-school appropriate toys within the seven story mass chaos of this store. We were in there less than 10 seconds before one of us said calmly to the other "Please, kill me now..." However we found a great playmat area to test out items before buying them (we discovered that we're not ready for the piano) and bought a couple of toys for Brooks - a set of painted wooden nesting boxes that he has all kinds of fun pounding into each other and a "touch and crawl friend" - an little electronic thing that rolls away from you when you touch it. Should be fun to watch Brooks figure it out as he attempts to perfect his crawl.



Playing with Daddy at Hamleys...


Woah! I can make LOTS of noise with THIS thing!

That evening we wandered around between the Regent street and Soho areas, trying to find a child-friendly pub where we could eat and watch one of the two big sporting events on...(nope, not the Indians or Auburn)... The English Football Team was playing Israel in a big soccer match. Also the Rugby World Cup is happening right now in the UK and England was playing the USA team. We searched in vain... all the pubs were either over-21 only (why don't they post a sign stating this, rather than making us guess?), or didn't have a TV, or were completely packed to standing room only with enthusiastic fans. By the time we finally gave up, I was starving so we stopped at a burger diner place, and we inhaled supper before wandering back to Piccadilly to Waterstone's (an enormous bookstore) to browse for some books for Brooks (again all our childrens' books are in a container on the boat!)

Sunday we slept in and then went back to HTB for the 11am service. After that we went in search of a "full English Breakfast" - an UK standard meal, typically bacon and/or sausage, baked beans, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, fried eggs and toast with coffee or tea. We found it and I never wanted to eat again - completely stuffed. That afternoon we played with Brooks, snoozed a bit, I read some of Harry Potter 6 while Eric looked at property listings online and then we did quite a bit of planning for our time in Italy this fall with my family. I'm really excited about the upcoming Italy trip. Sissy and I'll be showing Eric, Brooks and my parents many of the places we visited when we were there six years ago. Later, Eric found our dinner at the grocery, exactly what he wanted and half price as well, so we had a little victory party over supper. It definitely feels like we're slowly figuring out our way around this (very pricey) neighborhood.


Eskimo-kissing with Mommy...


Sunset from our bedroom window...

Today I'm off to look at another property that has some potential... please continue to pray for us and our housing search. I look forward to reporting good news on that front very soon!

Church in London

Last Sunday, we'd been home less than 24 hours and we decided to take a stroll in the evening, just to give ourselves a break from unpacking and laundry and settling in from Paris. We loaded Brooks up in the stroller and set off to get some fresh air. As always when exploring here, we took our A to Z map (this place is a labyrinth, it's a necessity to have a good map!) We stopped at one point to check our progress and I realized while looking at the map that we were within sight of Holy Trinity Brompton, a church that several folks had recommended in central London. We decided to go see if the church was open, and lo and behold, they were just beginning their casual 5pm service. Perfect, we decided! We'd just drop in.

I can't tell you the feeling that I had as we participated in that service. We ended up in the balcony as the church was already pretty full and by the time we were getting settled in with Brooks, they were in the middle of worship. Amazing to witness a group of believers in another country lift hands and voices up to God! The worship sets included Agnus Dei, Blessed Be Your Name, and several other familiar songs that seemed chosen just for me. This song in particular struck me anew and I felt God wrap His arms around me as we sang...

Blessed be Your Name when the sun's shining down on me,
When the world's all as it should be, Blessed be Your Name.
Blessed be Your Name when the road's marked with suffering
When there's pain in the offering, Blessed be Your Name.

Every blessing You pour out, I'll turn back to praise.
And when the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say...
Blessed be the Name of the Lord, Blessed be Your Name
Blessed be the Name of the Lord, Blessed be Your Glorious Name

The sermon was great as well, the pastor was talking about the faith of the centurion (Matt 8:5-13). He talked about 1) his knowledge or understanding of authority - basically, that God has all the authority, not Rome, 2) his skill of faith - I had never thought of faith as a "skill" but he talked about developing it through practice and that he comes not fully-formed but grows over time... interesting idea, and 3) his attitude of humility - here was a man who was used to being obeyed, to being followed, but he humbled himself before Christ and asked God to meet his needs, and God did.

That was the basic content of the sermon, but the context was even better - the "start of a new term". He talked about the fact that many of us are beginning anew in the fall - with a new school year, a new ministry year. Many of us are taking on new challenges and opportunities and God doesn't want us to merely survive (hmm, is he talking to us?) We should have expectations higher than that, that we could flourish and be met by God and used by God during this season. Not that we would just hold our breath until the holidays (such a temptation) but to look for ways for God to direct us. It seemed that he was saying that God might have plans for us - even in these circumstances, even during this transition time.

I was so glad to celebrate communion though we had some trouble figuring out where to go (we were standing up in the back by that point). But again, it was so great to do with another group of believers. And at the end of the service, the pastor called people forward to be prayed for... both those who are taking on new challenges at the start of this "new term" and those who are gripped with fear. I felt like both were me! Eric went forward to request prayer for all of us (as I was wrangling a squirmy Brooks by that point) and an older gentleman with white hair asked "how can I pray for you, son?" - I think meant the world to him to have an "elder" pray for him. I had a great encounter with Miles, one of the greeters in the lobby, who made friends with Brooks and we chatted about his own 8 month old son.

I'm so glad that we decided to go last week even at the last moment. We were feeling lonely and thwarted and frightened and alienated, but God met us there and seemed to say, I know you, I haven't forgotten about you, I will meet all your needs in My time - that was exactly the message we needed to hear before the challenges of last week. Eric and I both left feeling very full and grateful that God directed us there.

Yesterday, we went back to the same church. We went in the morning to take advantage of theie creche (nursery). Unfortunately, it was more than a little chaotic as it was "Vision Sunday" - there was a LOT going on. But we eventually got Brooks settled, got seats together in the main sanctuary and were able to participate in the service. Afterwards we went to the tent outside with a sort of "ministry fair", and found out about their Pastorates (which I think are a bit like our small groups), a mid-week Tots and Toddlers group for me, some theology classes the church offers, and a Worship welcome night (I've already missed getting to sing and/or lead worship!). Eric was a bit discouraged that the kids ministry table pressed him to volunteer in the creche and that he didn't find much in the way of justice ministry, but I'm not sure that's all that unusual.

I think we'll go back again but maybe also try a couple of other congregations before we settle in. It will be easier to plug into a church when we know where we're going to live. Our major prayer request is unchanged - Lord, please lead us to a home, both the brick and mortar kind and the spiritual and relational kind!

Things I'm thankful for...

~ Eric likes his co-workers. One even recommended a church for us to visit.

~ Brooks' cold is getting better. So, we're all healthy.

~ Eric made me supper tonight while I put Brooks to bed. Sweet husband.

~ We sold our Chicago condo, so we're no longer paying a mortgage.

~ The weather in London has been lovely. We've picked the perfect time of year to move here.

~ They can't kick us out of the corporate apartment that we're currently in. We can stay here as long as necessary, assuming of course that we're willing to pay for it.

~ We have internet access which has proved to be a lifeline to the outside world when Eric's working. Plus I have a cell phone, so making appointments to see rental property isn't that hard.

~ Strolling with an adorable baby is a great way to meet people in the city. Everyone wants to play with/talk to/ask me about Brooks. When I'm lonely, I just have to load Brooks up in his stroller, step out outside and Voila! He's the perfect entree to dozens of conversations. At the very least, he elicits big smiles from complete strangers. What a joy.

~ We don't have anything we *have* to do this weekend. Yes, we need to find an apartment, but our hands are tied until Monday, so we have an entire weekend in London to ourselves.

~ God knows our needs before we even tell Him. The sparrows and the lilies are our reminders. God, please provide for us as You always do. Show us how big You are, Lord...

My Top 10 list is a good exercise for me, as it offers some perspective when I'm frustrated. I do hope all is well with you and yours, too.

here we go again...

One of the joys of the rental market chaos in London is the fact that landlords regularly list their available properties with more than one letting agency. I can't quite determine why this is a good thing for the letting agencies, but the landlord wins in two ways - he gets increased exposure for his unit and he potentially sets up letting wars between two or more companies.

Last night as we were submitting our offer to Faron Sutaria Agency, somewhere in the city the Foxton's Agency was calling their client to say that the landlord had agreed to their terms. While no money has exchanged hands yet, the landlord feels bound to his word to accept their offer and so our full-price offer was "thrown out with yesterday's rubbish". (Can you tell I'm a bit annoyed?)

Another idiosyncrasy is that letting agencies don't work over the weekends, so because we're getting this news at 4pm on Friday, we can't do anything about finding another flat until Monday morning. Oh, the frustration...

Lord, give us patience, perseverance, and a good sense of humor about all of this. And please lead us to the right place...

Prayer Request - a home

Eric and I put in an offer on our third flat tonight. It's not *exactly* perfect but we agreed that we could live there for two years. I am so hopeful that this is it... SO hopeful.

The process of looking for a rental property in London has been harder than I imagined. We were certainly warned, but after a two or three month search for our Chicago condo a few years ago, I thought "how hard could it be?!" Well, I was wrong! And now I wish I had listened a bit more... But actually, I don't know what we would or could have done differently. We loved our vacation trips and would still would have taken them. I know we worked really hard on the day that estate agent took us around - we saw more than a dozen properties that day, running from one to another while working around little Brooks' needs. Perhaps we would have made better offers on the first places we liked? I'm not so sure, as they both had some issues.

All in all, I think this place has many of things we are looking for... There are a few problems (grungy stained carpet, a tiny college dorm fridge, a single unit washer/dryer rather than a separate dryer, etc) but even those can be worked around, I think (ie, a few well placed rugs and a trip to the grocery store for milk every other day)... Maybe the delay in finding our home has done this - it's helped me become more flexible and willing to make changes necessary to adapt to living in our new city. And it's made us move more decisively once we found a place that COULD work.

You know it's funny, last night we went by the listing agent's offer to confirm our offer and drop off our reference forms (five pages of forms to assure them that we could afford to pay our rent on time, even though they require a ten week - yep, 10 week! - deposit to secure the lease). While we were there, the listing agent mentioned that the place has been on the market two weeks and should have rented before now. Apparently the desired rent for this amount of space in this location is fairly reasonable, but it's clear that the vacating tenants don't want to be very helpful to the landlord before they move out. It's currently being rented by two bachelors who hadn't cleaned in weeks. But they apparently do quite a lot of laundry - shorts and socks and shirts were draped ALL OVER the flat, air drying... Very, very funny. But it gave me ideas about how well the washer/dryer combo unit must work! :) And even better, if this is the reason that the place hasn't rented yet, then HURRAY for messy tenants. We just had to use our imagination to clear out their things and imagine our happy little family making it more cozy and warm.

I haven't told you all the great bits about it ... perhaps I'm still holding off on getting attached to this flat, as I did the other two. We know they have two more showings today. If you're a person who prays, please pray with us that the landlord accepts our offer (today, so we're not anxious about it over the weekend!) and that he'll agree to replace the carpets for us. He currently lives in Dubai and I'm praying that he's both reachable and reasonable.

Hopefully, we'll know something by the end of the business day.