So many things have been going on the past couple of months. It is a little hard to digest and get a handle on. I have already mentioned in a previous post that the very week Avery was due we had to move out of the house we were renting due to it selling. Avery was born on the 29th and we had to be out by the 30th. Thankfully we were ahead of the game and moved out a couple days before he arrived. We moved all of our belongings into storage and moved in with my parents temporarily while we waited for the house we had made an offer on to close. We were very excited and knew we were getting this house at a great deal. Everything seemed to be going our way as far as getting the house at a good price, not having to pay closing cost, no private mortgage insurance, and an amazingly low interest rate. Not to mention Becky our AMAZING realtor (and best friend) got us into the house a month before closing rent free! Things couldn't have been going any better (besides a few minor hiccups with repairs on a new build that had never been lived in) UNTIL we were walking in the neighborhood one Sunday evening and our neighbors stopped to talk with us. They asked us if the owner had disclosed any information about the house...we said "ummm no, what kind of information". They went on the describe what sounded like a horrific mold invasion of the home. Apparently the upstairs plumbing had leaked while the house was closed up for a couple months causing the ceiling to cave in, the downstairs hardwood floors to buckle, and mold to grow all over the walls. Needless to say we were shocked at such a story and wondered how much of it was true. So, we immediately went home and pulled up some of the carpet in the upstairs hallway and nursery and sure enough found evidence of ...MOLD. The next day we talked to one of our other neighbors who gave us the exact same story. We felt sure that the owner had fixed the problem and it wasn't as bad as they were telling us because the house looked fine. We had ServePro come out to look at the mold we had found which was dry. They cleaned up the area in Avery's room and told us that it was not a major issue which made us feel better. We decided to offer the bank less money with them doing and extensive mold test and fix the problem ourselves as long as the damage was not huge. We were fairly confident that the test would come back with minimal problems. We were WAY wrong. The testing was being done by Environmental Solutions Group out of Greensboro, NC. They come in and do air quality testing as well as moisture readings. I came home to find the inspector and Zac wearing N95 masks (which is what we wear in the hospital for tuberculosis patients) at that point I knew things did not look good. The inspector told us that he was getting some of the highest readings he had ever gotten in a home and that this home was "very sick". He told us we should not be living in the house and either to throw away all of our soft goods or wash them in special detergent. When we got the report back there were about 3 different kinds of mold spores in the air one of them being what they call a "no tolerance mold" that should never be found in a home. He told us our decision about buying the house should "be painfully obvious". His suggestion was that the house would have to be completely gutted and remediated and even then there was no garantee.
After finding all this out Zac spent the next 2 weeks moving things out of the house (on his own since I couldn't take Avery back in the house) and back into a storage unit. We are now back with my parents praying and asking the Lord for guidance and direction. We are confident that He works all things for good and protected us from something potentially very harmful and devastating. We know that even though things have been extremely difficult, He has a plan and a purpose for this family even if we can't see it at the time. I pray that as we wait our hearts do not become weary or discouraged. We are taking it one day at a time and trying "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness" because in the grand scheme of things this is a very small ordeal to God and one day will it really matter if we had our own house? This is really just a blip on the timeline of eternity and when we are able to look back I pray that we are able to say that we handled this situation with patience and long suffering, and that loving God and His people mattered more to us than a house.
Besides, Avery hasn't seemed to mind...he is just chill :)
