Why in the world would we want to move into a Camper with ALL 6 of us? you might ask.
Where to begin? I'm thinking, well, where and why are we here in this crazy little camper 20 minutes from town, in the middle of the wilderness in a rented camper on rented land?
Questions I am asking EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!
So here is the real beginning of it all, well mostly a long story leading up to this point but the most recent jump start into where we are now!
In 2016 we sold our home and during the middle of November we stuffed all our belongings into a storage unit in town and took ONLY what was necessary to the rented camper.
Before this epic family moment we had tried to arrange what our motivation and plans would be if we could sell. Our mission and focus was to sell and try to purchase an investment property, flip it and repeat and then save up to build a new home on some acreage out in the country but near town. Several attempts were made to rent out our home while we bought a foreclosure but fell through.
We still to this day don't know why, but many details and sobbing episodes later.....we just gave up! Well, for me that was just a few days of accepting the truth and then jumping back to myself and braving the challenge again.
Something I have always found myself in the middle of is exactly the most outrageously impossible situation and resulting in this ambition rising up inside of me and bravery to push through and find a solution.
I decided that I can't give up. I can't let go of this dream. God has left us in Greenwood for a reason and I just can't lose hope. For my children, now 4 of them, they needed a place to run and play. We needed a room just for homeschool things. I needed to have a place to garden and just get outside.
I knew I couldn't give up. So after 4 years of trying to sell by owner we decided to list with an agent. The first did not work..again...try again....
We had our 4th child and decided that we were not longing to have any more children. We knew that we were ready to step out in faith and look for God to make a way.
So fast forward, we enlisted an agent again but discovered that to have her sell for us we would end up with no money back at closing. Huge hiccup, but we said If God is in this, it will happen. So we waited and not long into the listing we got a buyer. I totally doubted we would REALLY sell, but we quickly made plans to find elsewhere to live. We worked hard to budget something that would help us manage living/renting plus the plans of building a house and General Contracting it. We still trusted God in this. Not knowing how he would help, but he did! We closed it out with a few hundred dollars to boot! We sold to a couple that we knew would take good care of it. The owner even let me come back and get my Echinacea plants in the spring.
We built our first home nearly 16 years ago but my Step Dad did most of the work and we helped. So it wasn't entirely a new and uncharted territory for us. I also had been in real estate sales and we had flipped a few homes.
None the less, we could not budget a large rental and had no clue how long we would find land. We had been looking for years and couldn't find anything near town in our price range. We had a tight budget since I don't bring any income to the table. We had to be smart. Not owing on our vehicles has saved us, although not very attractive to be seen in, it does get us to and fro!
We made it to closing but our crazy adventure was just getting started. Before closing we had decided that we might try to buy a camper and live in it and when we find land....just move it onto the place and build our home. We went to a RV camper sales and discovered that it was going to be quite expensive to purchase one brand new AND that would be a payment even when we finish our house...bummer. So I randomly thought, what if someone wanted to rent their camper out. It would be temporary. It would be an easy way to save money. But the one thing I couldn't handle was staying at an RV park. So I brainstormed and advertised that I was looking for a camper rental and looking for land to put it on with utilities already in place.
Well, lo and behold-what does God do? I get a response almost immediately: a friend of a friend has one. Oh my, it is the same model and look of the one we wanted to buy- A Wildwood 31foot camper! ok. ok. so now what- look what God has provided, but I can't find anywhere to park it. A few days later another friend tells me there's land near them with 9 acres with rv hookup! What?
Ok. With a barn, chicken coop (so we could get some laying hens), a deer stand and a gorgeous view of the Ouchita Mountains
Well, God, you have provided exactly what we needed and exactly when we needed it! We wanted to "get away" from it all. We prayed we'd have room to play and stretch out. To have a place to be "free". A place for a tire swing and just a little bit of privacy from closed quarters living in a subdivision.
Done.
The only catch is.........we need to be out of the RV by Memorial Day. So it's November and surely we can find land and be out by then, right?
Surely winter won't be so bad and we can cruise on through. Hubby's going to build a small storage building with laundry facilities and homeschool storage, surely this won't be too hard. We'll have everything we need and it won't be long and we'll be moving into our new home!
So, alright, there we went. Onward bound.
Our journey had just begun. I will continue to write about our adventures with pictures soon.
We don't have Internet service so I am limited on how much time I can spend using my phone wi-fi spot to blog. This is so therapeutic to be able to share our journey and relieve some stress. It has been a wild ride and it's June and it's still not over!
I have some amazing and shocking stories and posts coming. For me it is literally driving me crazy but I hope to share in a way that is hilariously comical, so please follow!
Thanks for reading, please share!
No comments:
Post a Comment