a new adventure, just when we needed it most...

An opportunity literally just fell into our laps. A friend of mine sent me a message letting me know she knew someone who was looking for about 20 hours of childcare a week for their 16 month old - in exchange for an apartment in their beautiful home.  This was yesterday.  24 hours later, we're packing!  We met the family this evening - they have a gorgeous house and three super sweet kids.  The older 2 are off at school during the day - so Brent and I will have Ryland and their baby.  Ryland and baby J were instantly best friends - exchanging binkies, waving, and a huge kiss on the mouth!  We are so amazed to get this opportunity when we weren't even looking for it - when we need to save money so badly right now.  

We're so excited about: living in such a cute neighborhood (Viewridge), being a couple blocks from an awesome park, being next to the PCC (yum!), having an extra 400 square feet of living space, making new friends (the family is great!), having a washer/dryer to ourselves (I can do diaper laundry ALL THE TIME!), hard wood floors, a big grassy yard, and of course free cable, wifi, and utilities.  And I love this little baby we'll be watching- SUCH a sweetie.

2 downsides.... 1) there's one bedroom- but it is GIGANTIC.  I think I'm going to buy a room-dividing curtain from Ikea, so Ry-Ry still has his own space.  2) It's just a temporary situation, and we'll have to move this summer as the family is moving to California around July-August.  BUT we are very much looking forward to putting all the money we would be spending on rent during these next 6 months into savings and toward our debt snowball.

HUGE sigh of relief.  We're feeling so grateful.