A lesson in Patience

I am so bad at waiting. I have always been REALLY bad at waiting. Sometimes my impatience pays off because it means I get to the front of the line quicker (on most occasions). I must clarify though that my dislike of waiting doesn't really mean that one could call me impatient. Depending on the subject; I am probably one of the most patient people you will ever meet. With children and the elderly I have the patience of a saint. With my own son I have so much patience that it may indeed end up biting me in the rear. But when I put my mind to something and when I have decided that I want something accomplished, I am really bad at waiting.

The most recent example of this is in the decision Charlie and I made about putting our house on the market. Poor Charlie. He always seems to get caught in the fire of it all. We decided we were going to do it and I immediately turned into a cleaning/repairing/staging monster. We had our entire house ready within 4 1/2 weeks and the list of accomplishments is incredibly long. Just to name a few; We pre-packed our home and filled an entire 10X10 storage unit, removed two doors and then repaired the frames they were attached to, added a handle to the oven door (it was broken off one day when Charlie decided he wanted to do a little dance move using the oven handle in the same way a ballerina would use a bar to keep balance), replaced the carpet at the bottom of our steps, replaced the back storm door, painted our hallway and stairwell, removed wallpaper from the guest bath, repainted the guest bath, stripped the master bathroom ceiling to make it smooth and repaint, and cleaned just about ever corner of this house. We did this all while working full time and being parents to a toddler. The list is longer (significantly so) but I think that gives you an idea of just how focused I can be when I set my mind to something.

Then we moved on to the task of looking for a new house. Although our own home hasn't sold yet we were told that it was very important that we start looking for houses now because as soon as we get an offer on our townhome we have to be ready to IMMEDIATELY make an offer on a new house. Of course that means I spend HOURS on-line looking at and reading about homes on the market. One house in particular captured our hearts immediately. The only thing that deterred me from looking at it in the beginning was that the location was not exactly what I wanted. But once I opened my mind to a different area we finally paid attention to a home that my Realtor had suggested for us MONTHS ago (before we had even decided to put our house on the market). It is beautiful, cozy, charming, unique, and perfect for us. So in fear of loosing it as the market hits it's busiest months Charlie and I made a contingency offer. Now we are waiting.

Waiting to find out if they accept the offer which gives us a maximum of three months to sell our home. This is the part I am really bad at. The sellers are out of town and won't be back until tomorrow. They want to be able to look at the contract personally before accepting anything. So we have to wait. We have to wait on them to return, look at the contract, and then let us know their decision. I just want to know right now. I understand there is no real true rush because we still haven't sold our own house but I still want to know. So I have to remind myself that I am a true believer in that everything happens for a reason. If this is the house meant for us then it WILL BE. If this is not the house God has in mind for us then it won't happen and we will be led to the right one. I can be patient. I will be patient. I have to be patient...