We have had a long drawn-out aggravating process with the house we are hoping to purchase. We have had a difficult time communicating with the seller, who isn’t being helped by an agent of his own. After the inspection we had to get some potential problems checked out. Our agent was out of town, then the seller was out of town and we were still uncertain that we were getting an okay deal. After deadlines were passed we finally came to the point to get financing in line. That became a nightmare in itself. Living overseas and not having credit card debts and car payments each month along with multiple checks on our credit score since we have moved back to the States, has had a negative effect. Luckily we were still above the cut-off for the financing we were wanting. Or so we thought! Doesn’t it seem a little wrong that being responsible and cautious with our money should hurt us? We had a lender selected and began some processing only to discover that a mistake by our bank had dropped our score just under the cut-off. The bank quickly sent a letter to the credit company to explain their mistake and we waited while we got a rapid re-score, which would make it worth it or NOT worth it to buy. We were hopeful but it turns out the fix actually lowered our score again. By this time we are pretty much done with lenders, and house hunting and trying to work all this nonsense out. On top of all of this we had put in notice with our apartment that we would be vacating at the end of the month. So what do we do? Well, we found a lender who would work with us at the lower credit score and still get us lower rates, our apartment managers were nice enough to extend our lease for an additional month, and Chad and I have officially become addicted to watching TV and movies for the sheer lack of energy and motivation to do anything at the end of the day. We are now crossing our fingers (and our arms, legs, toes and eyes) that the loan will go through without any crazy surprises and we’ll be in our new home at the end of April.

I do not feel like puking all day long anymore. It turns out that pregnancy with a boy makes the sickness last for 20 weeks instead of 16 like with Eden. I am feeling much better. I have more energy to play with Eden, which is so much more fun for both of us!

Chad and I have been neck deep all sorts of crazy. When we got an ultrasound for Parry Boy there were some concerns we needed to have looked at by a specialist. Doctors will be keeping an eye on his dilated right kidney but things should work themselves out. The big scare was that the the problems they saw with the ultrasound were both soft markers for Down’s syndrome. The genetic counselor and doctors assured us that they do not believe our risk has been increased by these things. Good news. At any rate we have had some fantastic support from a family in our ward. Faith watches Eden for all of my OB appointments and it turns out her husband, Chad, is a medical specialist for the potential defect Parry Boy has. What a relief. They have both been so encouraging and helpful, even in little ways. We are totally reassured after talking to specialists but have definitely been stressed about it.