M.I.C.: Move #3

In Kitty Disaster #1 you learned that we had to give our notice about moving off of campus. Before school started up again, we were determined to find another apartment. Not exactly an easy task in the middle of a semester, especially when you want to find a pet-friendly place.

For whatever reason, our town didn't seem to be pet-friendly... at least not to renters. While we found a few apartments that seemed reasonable and were close to campus, none of them wanted a pet-- not even a tiny feline.

Finally we found a place.

It wasn't small. And it definitely was over our price range. When I hashed out the budget as we started looking, I wrote down the most we could afford for a place-- at most. This place was $100 over that... but it was so perfect. And it was the only place that we could find.

Wouldn't you know, we rushed into it.

Another woman was showing up as we were finishing our "tour". I was nodding my head yes, Clark was giving me "the look", and I was ignoring him. There have been very few times I have received "the look". You know, the one your spouse gives you when he/she knows something's a bad idea, or you can't afford what you're about to buy, or you're doing something that's annoying them... that look. It tends to always be one in the same. Rarely have I ever received that look.

But I did that day. Clark can have the "I told you so" moment there.

Now, here's the catch.

The landlord didn't exactly want pets. What had happened was the guys that had lived there previously (a two bedroom house that had been a home to three or four male college students) had all graduated. Something had happened with their previous sublet and it had all gotten messed up. So, the landlord was allowing them to advertise the place as pet friendly because he felt bad for them because they were all paying rent on two properties at that point.

The landlord was fine with Coconut. Small, indoor cat. That wasn't a problem.

We gathered who we could to help us move, and started the process almost immediately. While the place was up a gravel road that had an odd turn, it wasn't nearly as bad as Homespun Hills (Our First Apartment). Not to mention, this place truly was a house. While it had a basement apartment, you couldn't get to it through our part of the house. Our downstairs neighbor basically kept to himself. I think we only saw him a few times, one of which was to figure out how to share cable/internet (yeah... bad us).

We had two bedrooms, a real kitchen (finally), a huge wrap-around porch, a living room, a laundry closet... it was perfect.

(We also got to paint the living room, which positively THRILLED me.)

We thought everything was going back to normal. We had a new place to live. Our kitty was settled in with us (we didn't have to get rid of him). I was starting class again. I still had my campus job. We had some money in savings to help us out. All that was needed was a job for Clark.

This is another time that it was completely clear God was in control. We were afraid we wouldn't find a house: done. We were afraid we weren't going to be able to afford food: done. We were afraid Clark wouldn't find a job: done. Things were lining up. But, just because God is providing doesn't mean there isn't a lesson in there somewhere. That's the part we always seemed to ignore.