The Pillar of Fire -or- How We Found Our New Home.

As I mentioned before, we moved twice this year. In February, we moved into the basement of my sister's house where my parents were living after she took a job in Denver. About the time we moved in, she received an offer on her house and a month later we were moving out again.

From the time we moved in, I was in house hunting mode. After much thought and discussion (and a lot of bullying on my part) Larch and I came to the conclusion that it would be financially wise to rent a place with my parents rather than a place on our own. Not only would this save us money, it would give our children some added stability with my crazy retail work schedule and put babysitters only so far away as the next room.

We looked, and we looked, and we looked and every time we put in an application we were the second person to apply or our credit was not good enough (read spotless). About a week before my sister was due to sign papers and close, my dad and I were driving around looking for a place.

We had a set of keys in our hand to go and look at one last house when we noticed a pillar of black smoke. There was a house on fire somewhere. The further north we drove, the more obvious it was that the fire was only a couple blocks east of the road we were on. Being the sick, morbid, and depraved people we are, we decided to take a detour.

Of course, the cops and the fire department had the road with the actual fire blocked off, because as it turns out, everyone in north Idaho is sick and morbid. There were at least 20 other cars that had obviously chosen to drive the same route as us to see the fire. We were forced to go down to the next road in order to continue our journey north. As we turned, I read the street sign and commented that I thought one of the local rental companies had a listing on this road, but that we hadn't bothered with it because it was on the very top end of our price range.

Turns out, it was through the rental company my husband and I had just left. The house was actually about 100 a month over budget, but it sits on .964 acres, had a four car attached garage, a heated shop, and a very large pole barn. We immediately put in our application and we signed the lease, 3 hours after my sister had signed the closing papers on the house we had been occupying. We were in the process of making hotel reservations and obtaining a storage unit (or two) when we got the call that we had been approved.

And that is how God led us to our new home with a pillar of fire....er...smoke.

Just a note, as we were moving our stuff in, I drove down the road the burning house was on. It was a total loss. All that is left is the foundation. And I'm pretty sure they tore that out last month. I feel bad for the family that lost their house/home, but am grateful no one was hurt and that it led us to be not homeless.