Looks Like We'll Be Here For a While

This has been nice. We've been camped out on the beach for three weeks. In the last seven months, the only places I haven't quickly gotten antsy and ready to go have been on Padre Island in Texas, where we spent two weeks, and here. I love the beach. I love the waves crashing on the shore, I love walking barefoot on the sand for miles, I love seeing all the seashells that get washed in, and I'm holding out hope that I'll find a whole sand dollar. I love the sunsets or sunrises, depending on which coast I'm on, and I love fishing and seeing the strangest fish, whether we reel them in or we watch someone else reel them in.

We put an offer on a house earlier that we wanted to flip, praying before and after and leaving it in God's hands. It was a beautiful place with two Carolina rooms (sunrooms) that had been partially renovated with beautiful stone tiles and everything that was completed was high quality. Unfortunately, it was flooded while they were renovating and ended up going into foreclosure. We were excited, but the bank accepted another offer. Then we learned that because it has been flooded two times in the past, the county put all sorts of regulations on it, including how much money could be spent in renovations, and even if we did the work ourselves, they would consider the cost of a contractor and put that towards the total. We thanked God for closing that door, and looked some more.

That led us to a small place in the town of Andrews, SC, population 2,800, where we found a cute little three bed, one bath home. It has also had renovations started, but it needs a new bathroom and kitchen. Once we finish enclosing what used to be a breezeway between the house and garage with an attached room, the square feet will go from about 1100 to over 1700, and we both love it. The layout, location, everything. We're just waiting for the title company to do their part, and unless God pulls the plug on this one, we should own it soon. It's also on 0.93 acres fully enclosed with a chain link fence, so the dogs will be able to run all they want.

What else has been happening? I bought plane tickets to fly to Idaho where I'll stay for 12 days. I can't wait to see my kids and the rest of my family! And I can't believe that it's only costing me $300 for a round trip plane ticket almost to the other coast! If you're on a budget, now's the time to fly. But you may want to wait until January. If I were to go within a couple weeks of Christmas, it would be about $1500!

We've been going to the Myrtle Beach SDA church, and I love it! It's one of the larger congregations we've come across, and I've found that I prefer small congregations, but it's wonderful to see the pews full of people. These people are kind and caring, and they are busy helping out those who need it and taking the love of Jesus to the community. This morning, they were talking about the individuals they've come across that need help and asking the congregation to pitch in, and it was clear that they go beyond having a food bank or thrift store that people can come to for help, and they actually take the help to people who need it. I get the impression that these people do good deeds not to check them off of their to-do list, but because they genuinely love people and want to help. And they have potlucks every week. We went today, and boy howdy, was it a potluck! I'm looking forward to the next couple Sabbaths. We've been there twice and have two more Sabbaths to go, but if there isn't a church in Andrews, we'll probably drive an hour every week to go to the one in Myrtle Beach. Abe looked up a church in Andrews, but it was unclear whether it is still open or has closed down. I'm kind of hoping there isn't a church in Andrews so we can continue attending at Myrtle Beach.