Home Owners at 22 & 23! Our Story!

That's right; its official JP and I are home owners. We're sitting in our home in awe and disbelief that this finally happened. It was a long 6+ months but it was all worth it!

JP and I moved a year and a half ago due to JP's job transfer. We had about two weeks to find a place to live and we went up one weekend and saw the few places we could that fit into our budget and that would allow a dog... It was VERY slim pickings... We decided on a little unit near the beach because the owner was putting in new laminate floors and he gutted the kitchen and it was decent... We moved right in and all the problems began to pile up. Not to mention when all our stuff was in the 600 sq ft unit was uncomfortably tiny... First off our neighbors were an interesting bunch to say the least. We met a woman who had been living in there for a long time and we immediately knew she would be a piece of work to live by... We will call her Dill... lol. If you knew her name would would think that is funny. We shortly found out we were living in a Section 8 complex... We lived next door to a convicted sex offender, a meth addict, heroin addicts across the way, domestic violence in the other unit and crazy single moms screaming and cussing out their very small children... We couldn't believe it but we signed a year lease. (The sex offender moved out two months after we moved in thank the Lord...) But the drug addicts just kept coming...

We held our heads up high and decided to just push through until our lease was up and then we would start our search for a new place to rent. I always kept an eye out for an idea in our price range but quickly realized we would always be living in dumpy places for our price range. Its amazing how LITTLE $1200 a month will get you if you have a dog! When I was pregnant with Hope about 4 months along JP came in the house from work one day and said "Babe, Im going to buy us a place." I was like okay? We dont have any savings, we dont have enough time to build a savings either for a down payment. At least not for a few years? Since I was pregnant and exhausted I told him if he really wanted to do this to go for it but I wont be much help because my brain was on baby overload. Well I owe all the credit to JP. He did the research on a home loan called a USDA loan. It is a rural development loan that is targeted to stimulate the economy of rural towns with small populations. So not every town will qualify.

So JP and I qualified for a home loan and we decided to go for a short sale to get the most out of it. We knew we wanted a condo being that its a good investment for a first time buyer because when you grow out of it you can easily use it as an income property and rent it out down the line. We immediately knew the place had to be ours. We didnt have to look any further this was it for us and the process began. Because of the home loan we used we didnt have to come up with any down payment, closing costs... NOTHING. It is a 100% financing loan! All we needed was to put down an escrow deposit which was as much as one months rent. So literally we bought our house for less than $2,000... Too good to be true right? Nope its true. We closed and signed the final docs and we are getting our full escrow deposit back even! Our mortgage is LESS than our monthly rent and our place is TWICE its size and like 50+ years newer than the place we were renting... We just feel so blessed... Marriage, new baby and new house... The American DREAM!!!! Thank you Lord we owe it all to God. I have prayed and prayed and prayed for it all and it happened. SOOO happy!!! Thanks everyone for your prayers and for routing for us during this process! We will update with lots of pictures of our new home when its all set up :-D

JP is the model of someone who when they want something they go for it all the way. He never gave up! I am so blessed to have a man who fights so hard for his family and for his dreams! What motivated him was when someone told him at work, "Hey dude, you know you could be owning a home for the amount of rent you are giving to someone else every month right?" That pissed him off and pushed him right into this decision. If you have any questions about the home loan we used we can give you the info of our broker. Carpinteria qualifies by the way friends ;)!

2 Month Update!

As for JP and I at the moment we are just waiting on closing on our home which we are looking to close on the 14th according to our contract. So please keep praying for us that this will happen so we don't have to file an extension. We are so ready to get out of the apartment we are in as the people here are so crazy! Seriously I really don't understand why the owner of the complex approves these people! You would think after kicking out 3 different "families" since we have been here in just over a year that he would go for a different type of applicant? I say families because its mostly just unrelated people living in the units as roommates. Anyway, the condo we are buying is adorable and in a family oriented neighborhood in rural little Nipomo. So excited!!

Hope had her 2 month check up today and all he did was check her weight, height and went over development that we can look forward to. I know this is an extremely controversial topic but JP and I have decided not to vaccinate Hope. Looking at the risks nation wide, state wide and county wide we feel the risks of vaccines outweigh the benefits. There is history on my side of bad reactions to vaccines including my sister and myself. Unfortunately for my sister hers is neurological and Im sure my mom would have rather her had whooping cough and fought it than to have a disability her whole life... Some people have a genetic disposition in being sensitive to the mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde in vaccinations and that is the case with my family so therefore we will not be risking this with Hope. What a lucky baby no shots! Of course I am concerned with her contracting an illness but the way our life goes is we are never promised tomorrow anyways. There is more chance of children choking than contracting a deadly illness and unfortunately this happens everyday. Vaccinations are not a promise of tomorrow and they are not 100% effective. I myself have had the stupid Rubella vaccine three times in my life, I gain no immunity from the vaccine. So in summary of this topic we will live by faith and not by sight and pray for the best <3

Hope's development is right on track and beyond. She is such a strong little girl! She can hold her head up like its nobody's business and has rolled over a few times already! She is smiling all the time and totally thinks she is having conversations with us. Its so adorable. We will make sure to get that on camera soon. I bought an iphone so I will be loading a lot of videos...haha watch out.

The crunchiness just keeps evolving lol... I am so miss granola mom and I have no clue how this happened. I guess I just like to keep things all natural and old school. It just makes sense to me. I have decided I am going to cloth diaper Hope. Not just because disposables are incredibly wasteful in every single way imaginable but because she has very sensitive skin! She rashes very easily and the materials of disposables are not helping at all. Not to mention in rare cases can cause TSS
(Toxic Shock Syndrome)... very scary stuff in those things. So I figure hey lets save literally thousands of $$$ be eco-friendly, get rid of toxic risk to her and buy the insanely ADORABLE cloth diapers for her little toosh. I can tell I am going to get addicted to buying these things they make them SO cute its ridiculous. They are so beneficial in so many ways and even lead to your children potty training far earlier than when they use disposables. You can even pass them down to any future kiddos you have! I would have started earlier but we have to use on site laundry which is so expensive and a hassle getting quarters all the time. But soon we will be in our home with laundry!! EEEK cant wait! The other thing is I am now preparing to make her baby food from scratch! I want to control exactly what goes into her belly by me buying it, washing it, cooking and pureeing it. All 100% Organic of course. Being a stay at home mom I am blessed with having the time to do these things and I am very thankful and feel blessed every day.

I just love being a mom so much I never knew it could be so amazing. My life just makes so much sense and feels so complete when I wake up and see her big beautiful eyes just staring at me. She is such a good baby. She sleeps great. She usually goes to sleep for the night around 10 sometimes 11 and will sleep all the way until 5 or 6AM. The great thing about breastfeeding is not having to get us out of bed to make a bottle. I just feed her right in bed and we fall back asleep. We usually sleep until 9 or 10! Im getting far more sleep than when I was pregnant even! JP and I are having a blast in this new chapter of our lives! I am so excited to see what these coming months will bring forth for our little family. I pray that it will be ALL good things <3!!!