Erik started residency the end of June. Since the first house we tried to buy fell through, we lived in that rinky dink apartment for a few weeks while we tried to find another place to live. During one of our first weeks here, we had a formal function to go to at the hospital and we couldn't bring the kids with. I asked the one person I knew before moving here and she couldn't do it, so I just figured that I would have to stay home. Erik called later that afternoon from the hospital and said, "Start getting ready, I found a babysitter!"
It turns out that Erik was riding up the elevator at work with a bunch of people he had never met. He just blurted out, "Hey, I need a babysitter for my three kids tonight. Does anyone know of any teenage girl that would like to babysit?" Barry, one of the guys in the elevator said, "My daughter is 16 and she babysits." So, Barry ended up calling his daughter, she said yes, and the next thing I knew, we were leaving my precious babies with someone I had never met (we had to leave them at their house since our apartment complex was a little on the unsafe side and I didn't want a babysitter there alone).
The night went well and the kids had a BLAST! Juliana, Barry's 16 year old daughter, did a great job with the kids and the kids didn't want to leave when we showed up to get them. While we were forcing them out the door, we were telling Barry and Juliana a shortened version of the situation we were in and they suggested driving down their street because there was a nice house in forclosure that we could maybe get for pretty cheap. We drove slowly down the street and parked outside the house for sale. Erik called the realtor's name on the sign to get more information while I nursed Klaasen quick in the front seat. It turns out the house was already sold, so we headed home, driving slowly through neighborhoods searching for for sale signs in the front yards (this type of activity often consumed our evenings - I was so determined to find us a home!). Days, weeks, months passed and it wasn't until tonight that we needed another babysitter. We had tried to find Juliana's number, but couldn't find where we had put it. Finally Erik found Barry's number and we called him. Barry gave us Juliana's cell number. When I called to ask if she could babysit again, Juliana sounded really excited! The kids were excited, too. They could hardly contain themselves all afternoon in anticipation of her coming tonight.
I spoke with her a few hours before she came over tonight, just to give her our address and after getting off the phone, realized that maybe she didn't have GPS. So, I texted her back and said, "Hey, if you don't have GPS and would rather me give you the directions to our house, then call me!" She texted back and said, "I'm pretty sure I can find it!" with a smiley face. She arrived at 7:00 and upon answering the door, Erik said, "Did you find it okay?" Juliana responded with, "Yeah, I drove right to it... I grew up in this house!!!" I had been in the bathroom throwing dirty clothes down the laundry shoot and when I heard that, I ran out into the entryway and said, "What?!?!?!?!?!" It turns out that her dad actually designed and built this house. He drew the house plans that I have up in the top cabinet of my kitchen! She played and danced and sang, and lived in this house! Wow! She even brought pictures over to show us of them building the house. I just could not believe it! The best part was that the very last picture she had was a picture of her as a toddler, standing in the living room in front of the stair railing in a pair of ski boots and skis. Two nights ago, Maida was standing in her ski boots and skis in that very same place in the living room. :)
Life is so crazy sometimes. I love this story. I love how life unfolded. The day we met Barry and Juliana, we never in a million years would have thought that we would buy one of their family's first homes.
Wow! What an awesome story. I love it!
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool! I had a similar situation just the other day, where I found out that my son's teacher lives in the house I grew up in! It was so random and made me so happy to know her sweet family is growing up in MY room! Our initials that we carved into the woodwork (we were kids) are still there and now she thinks it's less annoying than wonderful and full of character!
ReplyDeleteWow, what a great story!
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