Headed to Smalltown, USA

Last week, Ethan and I left the girls at home with Grammy and Papa to go on our New Jersey house-hunting trip. We were really nervous, but I was excited to finally see in person where we would be living for the next 2 or 3 years. We left Houston Sunday after church and stayed the night in Newark before renting our car to head out west to the Clinton area.

But before I tell you all about our trip, here's our crazy story on the sale of our current home:

Really sad to leave our home in Cypress...

We listed our house on July 3, and by the end of the 4-day holiday weekend, we had five offers! It was so busy that basically the only meal the girls and I had at home was breakfast.  We accepted an offer couple days later, and have just come out of the option/contract period with no more added negotiations. Phew!

Back to our Jersey story.....

First of all, read this post to learn about why we're moving to New Jersey:
http://ethanandhong.blogspot.com/2013/06/our-roots-lie-here.html

What do you imagine when you think of New Jersey? Please don't say "Jersey Shore." Newark was pretty urban, much like inner-loop Houston. But as we headed west on Hwy. 78, we began to see why NJ is called the Garden State - rolling hills of green everywhere! Very beautiful, since Houston is so flat and below sea level, that you cannot ever see the sun set over the horizon.

45 minutes later, we arrived in the Clinton area. In the midst of packing for my family, I forgot to pack my own toothbrush and hairbrush for the trip. So we stopped by the town "A&P" grocery store. You know you're in a small town (total opposite of Houston), when the cashier doesn't need to use a loud speaker to call for a break of change in her till and when the manager just walks over to a wooden drawer sitting out in the open used as the "safe" to keep money. LOL, I chuckled. 

We head over to the real estate office to begin our tour of homes for the day. From 10am-3pm and without a lunch break, we visited 7 homes in Hunterdon County. There was not much in inventory within our budget that was also updated, but we did find one we liked. Still, we wanted to wait until we saw more houses on Tuesday before making a decision. We stopped in downtown/Main Street Clinton to have a very late lunch. Such a gorgeous area. We drove around just by ourselves for a little bit before dinner, mainly because there was a fire alarm set at our hotel. Luckily, nothing happened.

On Tuesday, we headed 15 miles west of Clinton on Hwy. 78 to Warren County. Actually the last exit in NJ before entering Pennsylvania.

See? It's the last exit. Told you.

The houses are larger and more affordable in Warren County. More bang for your buck. I was a little nervous because I did not want to be that far away from Clinton, and I really had not researched this area very well. And I really wanted to be in Clinton because it's so gorgeous! Good thing though, the commute for Ethan is only 20 minutes and without traffic from Warren County. Such a difference from his current hour-plus commute into Downtown Houston. In the town of Stewartsville, I was getting a little depressed because I just didn't find one that I liked. Some houses were so bad that they should not have been in the market, and at some, the owners were home during the showing. So weird. But then, we walked into this house, and immediately fell in love with it:

1816 Gary Road

Stewartsville, NJ 08886

The feeling we had was the same exact feeling Ethan and I had when we first stepped into our original Oak Mountain home in Copperfield. Felt like it was our home. Even two of the rooms were already painted pink and purple for Olivia and Callie! Olivia told us before our trip that she wanted a house with stairs. And we're glad that we could deliver! 

Backyard

If you turn left out of the neighborhood, you see corn fields on both sides of the road. If you turn right, you have all of the stores you need - Walmart, Target, Lowe's, Home Depot, Shop Rite, Best Buy. Although the home isn't in my preferred area near Clinton nor rural enough, I am happy that we have the best of both worlds. But, God put us here to find this home for us. I trust Him.

Wednesday morning, we visited a couple of potential pre-schools for Olivia. We went back into Main Street Clinton for lunch before visiting Ethan's new office, and what an amazing view from it! The government sold 900 acres (not 88 acres) to ExxonMobil with an agreement to keep most of it farmland. We weren't allowed to take any pictures while on property (they do top-secret stuff in there!). He will be working with some of the brightest minds in the area...and they're nice too! Everyone was excited to meet us.

Now, we are back home to take care of the logistics of our move. Ethan will fly back up to NJ in mid-August for work and an interview at Phillipsburg Christian Academy. He will fly up again to close on the new house on Aug. 23. The packers will come on Aug 27, truck comes Aug 28, cars will to shipped Aug 29, and then we will be on the one-way trip to begin our adventure on Friday, Aug 30. 

Please be in prayer in this next month:

 - that Ethan's two trips up to NJ in August are safe and uneventful (same for us at home!)

 - that Olivia will be accepted into Phillipsburg Christian Academy for pre-school

 - that move out of our Cypress home is smooth and for all paperwork to be done

 - that any interim work needed on our NJ home is done well

 - that the transition without our "things" to NJ and the flight, be smooth for all (this is the girls' first plane ride)

 - for us to FULLY trust in the Lord

In the meantime, Callie turned 9 months old yesterday:

More requests to follow...

And no good-byes just yet...