Moving out...yet not moving in

Selling

It has been a long process, but finally we will sell our house! We got an offer in mid-April and will move out of our house on Saturday, May 24.

Praise God for allowing us to sell our house in one of the most difficult markets in years. Along with the poor Michigan economy and general status of the housing market, Pfizer Pharmecuticals, the second largest employer in Ann Arbor next to the university, closed their Ann Arbor facilities this past year, leading to an exodus of over 2000 workers. About that many houses flooded the market at less than market prices because of a price matching agreement by Pfizer. Although we had to lower our price significantly over the year, we still feel fortunate to be able to sell.

Buying

Who knew that selling our house would seem like the easy part of the deal!

The same week we accepted the offer on our house, we placed an offer on another house in the area. We then found out this would be a short-sale because the owner owes more than they will receive when they sell the house. This is the case for most of the houses in the neighborhood we are looking at. They were all built in the past 5 years and were sold tens of thousands of dollars higher than they could possibly sell in this market.

While another person placed an offer on the house at the same time we did, they have since backed out. We are hopeful that our offer will be accepted sometime in the next few weeks.

Going “Homeless”

We will move our stuff out of our house and into a storage unit on May 24, effectively going “homeless”. Our situation is fine, at least in the short term. We will move in with Nate’s parents for a week, then head to Canada for summer project for five weeks. Our prayer is that we will be able to move in when we return in early July.

Please Pray

Please pray for God’s direction and God’s timing on the purchase of a home. Pray that we would be able to buy this short sale house. It would be ideal for us and our kids. Pray for continued peace and patience and for our kids as they leave all they have ever known.

We thank God for providing the house we have lived in for nine years! When we moved in we had no children; now we have four wonderful kids! We may have outgrown it, but we leave with many great memories. We are grateful to be staying at U of M and are praying for God’s direction for our next house.

Summer Contact Information

Temporary Mailing Address

Nate and Shelly Ardle

412 Dakota Ave.

Springfield, OH 45504

Summer Phone Number

Our current home number that will ring at our apartment in Canada; dial as you would dial any number in the U.S. It will also forward to Nate’s cell phone when we are between living situations.

(734) 528-4083  

Kids' Column

Almost every sunny day I set up a kickball field in our front yard. It sure is funny to watch Mommy chase the ball across the street every time I kick it! I am excited to move but I will miss the big tree in our front yard because it is shady and cool when it is hot outside. Our new house probably won’t have many trees.

It is getting so much easier to read! Caleb like it when I read books to him. And that give Mommy time to pack. Our toys are getting packed this week. It will be sad to not see them again until July.

Mommy says I will have lots of friends this summer. She thinks there may be 3 other 4 year-olds to play with! I surprised Mommy by copying “Ohio State” after Andrew had written it. And she thought I couldn’t write my letters!

My crib is gone. Guess that means I’m getting big. I’ll be sleeping in a bed or a mattress on the floor from here on out. It sure is fun to walk over and wake Andrew up in the morning! I’m not sure I’m going to like being alone in a new room in July—who will I talk to at night?

 Caleb

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