Homeowners!

Yesterday, while the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were off celebrating the start of a beautiful marriage, Chris and I took a different kind of "plunge," and officially became homeowners.

After a long day of ensuring all of our ducks were in a row, completing our walk-through, and then later, meeting to sign on the house with the sellers at the closing, I am overjoyed to say that we are finally done.

Words cannot express how grateful to God we are for blessing us with such an amazing house to call our home. It is above and beyond anything we had ever hoped for or expected, and our hearts are just brimming with thankfulness.

We pray that God uses are new home has a tool of blessing for others, that it may truly be a place of joy and peace, with doors always open to others. It is our hope to fill our home with the sound of family and friends, old and new. :)

This beautiful, Irish blessing (in honor of our McLean heritage) verbalizes so well what we feel in our heart:

Bless this House

"Bless this house, o'Lord we pray
make it safe by night and day
Bless these walls, so firm and stout
keep want and trouble out
Bless the roof and chimney tall
let thy peace lie over all
Bless the door that it may prove
ever open to joy and love
Bless these windows shining bright
letting in gods heavenly light
Bless the folk who dwell within
keep them pure and free from sin
Bless us that one day we may dwell
o'Lord with thee."

Thank you to each of you who has been faithful in keeping us in prayer throughout this (overwhelming at times) process. We hold you each dear to our heart and are grateful for your continued encouragement that has gotten us to this very happiest of days.

As far as our moving plans go, we will remain in our little apartment for a few more weeks, allowing us to get started on cleaning and cosmetic projects (like painting - yippee!) to ease the transition.

We are off to Lowe's and Home Depot in just a short while to start stocking up on much-needed cleaning and painting supplies, and to scope out prices on some other future upgrades we plan to make. How long we have waited for this day! :)

And, we also get to introduce little bear to his new home for the very first time! I've been waiting for this day for a long time. Yes, I'm a ridiculous dog mom. It happened. Call me crazy, but I can't wait to see his little fur ball of a body racing around the backyard this afternoon. He's also been an apartment dog and has never had any place of grace to call his own. Now he's going to have a half acre. :) His little doggie heart is going to be beating with happiness. :)

Speaking of the little guy, I have to share this photo of him I took the other day after he had just woken up. :)

Here are a few photos we took on closing day to document this momentous occasion in our lives. (P.S. It kind of cracked me up that the first thing the sellers said to us when we walked into the conference room at closing was, "Oh my gosh, you guys are so young!" I think I should have said, "Yes, I just turned sixteen." ;-) We don't look that young, do we?)

After signing our lives away, we had a short little celebration by grabbing some quick salads to-go at my new favorite grocery store, Earth Fare, and enjoyed our meal in our new backyard together. (P.S. Ginger Ale lovers, you have to try the Kombucha Wonder Drink Lemon Echinacae flavor, it tastes nearly identical -- while being so very good for you!)

It's still hard to believe that this is our house and our backyard! :)

Chris presented me with the very first rose picked from our new garden. :)

Bear's first new yard buddy. Louie the Lizard. ;-)

Chris and I enjoyed a special champagne toast late last night once we finally arrived back to our apartment. We purchased this bottle of Brute Rose when we were visiting with Chris's dad and family in California last summer, and had been saving it for a very special occasion. What better occasion than the celebration of becoming first-time homeowners! :)

Have a blessed and beautiful weekend all! We look forward to sharing more on the house as our projects commence. :)