What Happened??

No Money!

We were your typical urban family. In 2006 we had just built our dream house, had our 5th child and my husband was doing well in his line of work. We put a lot of sweat equity in our home and had things just the way we wanted them. We could tell the economy was starting to change when my husband’s work gave notice that they were pulling out of the U.S.(his company was owned by Canadian's). He and a co-worker decided that they would keep the service running as their own business here in the U.S. The company before had been doing pretty well and there was a large demand for the services they had to offer, many contracts were being negotiated and all seemed well. Then in 2009 the economic crunch hit and several of their clients could not afford their services, such companies were government agencies, school districts, hospitals, etc..

We knew that if this continued things were going to go downhill fast, my husband being the hard working, never give up sort of guy was doing everything he could to make things work. I being the one who takes care of the bills, checking account, etc.. could see that things were not looking good. I decided at that point to start putting some plans together just in case.

What To Do And Car Crash Miracles..
Then in 2010 things continued to get worse and not better, my husband was not bringing home any money, I thankfully was able to find a part time job to do at home, but it did not bring in much. The bills were piling up and our savings was dwindling fast. As fate would have it, I was in a head on car accident that year which totaled my vehicle, this gave us some extra money to live off of and bought us a little more time to see what we could do.

My husband finally realized that the business was too far gone to try to recover it, his friend wanted to keep going but we could not sacrifice anymore. We were now several payments behind on our mortgage, our credit cards, our HOA dues, we were on food stamps, I was looking into housing assistance, health insurance for our kids, and anything else I could do to help out. I was still working very part time, couponing and doing everything in my power to pinch our pennies, but time was running out.

  Too Far Gone.
In 2011 we decided that our home was too far gone to try to save it ourselves.   At this time it started to roll around in my head as to what options we had available and "if" we truly wanted to try to stay where we were. Because of the economic crunch we were not only behind in our payments but we lost all the equity we had in the house which was cash and work we had put in, home prices were dropping quickly and we were now very upside down with our homes value. We loved our urban home; we had designed and put a lot of work into it ourselves. We also loved our neighbors, the kid's school, and the church we attended but was this going to be the best option for our family still? I started to look around the area we lived in but decided to see what else was available, maybe something with some land as prices were quickly dropping in the housing market and land would give us more independence. We could grow our own food and have animals such as chickens, pigs, goats and more. It would also give our children an opportunity to learn some traditional work ethics and how to take care of and be responsible for something other than themselves. I spoke with my mom about this idea and she thought that that may be a better thing to do as well. My husband was not initially sold on this idea, but the more I talked to him about it the more he realized that he liked the idea!

  Just In Time!
We found a few different places that would possibly work for what we were wanting and that was affordable to my parents as they would have to help us, after all our credit was shot and we could not buy another house. We found a house with an acre of land but that was much smaller than the home we were currently in. I felt really good about it though even knowing we would have to significantly down size and the house and property needed a lot of work!

We did a lot of praying and our prayers were starting to be answered. Just before our savings ran out, my husband was fortunate enough to land a job after many applications and only a few interviews, but he was going to be making far less than what he had been making before. Money was still going to be tight, I was still negotiating with our creditors and we were still responsible for the mortgage of our house even thought it was now up for a short sale and an auction date had been set if it did not sell.

  The Short Sale Happens..
Not too long after this we received an offer on our home for the short sale and my parents offer for the other property had been accepted. Time was of the essence because the new house had to close so we could start the work that was going to need to be done on it(flooring, paint, doors, lights, etc..) so we could move out of our house and into the other as the short sale of the home we were in had to close before the auction date arrived. This all had to happen and be finished in 7 days, talk about needing a miracle!

  Farm Life Begins.
All went well and everything happened as it needed too, I thought I was going to die but God was truly watching over us. We moved out of our house and into the other even though all the work was not yet finished and we were still lacking downstairs flooring and a few other things but we moved in. With boxes piled high, everything in a mess, we were ready to start our "new" life in the country on our mini farm which we knew nothing about...yet! (Oh yes, did I mention we had already purchased 4 goats and 12 chickens that we had been keeping in the garage of our old home).