Parallel

Last summer, after we got married, we started looking for a house. We found one that we loved and made an offer on it. We went to dinner while we waited to hear from the realtor on the status of our offer, and we let ourselves start dreaming of what life would be like in that house, looking far, far into the future. We were excited at being closer to work. We loved the fact that we would've been less than a half-mile from the grocery store. We started talking about where the furniture would go and how we'd decorate all of the rooms. We let ourselves dream away.

We'd made a good offer, so we expected it to be accepted without even a counteroffer. However, we got a call the next day that informed us that another person had beaten us with their offer, and that offer was accepted. We were both crushed. Absolutely crushed. We went looking at houses the next day and found another one we loved, so we cautiously made an offer on that one. The offer was accepted a couple hours later, and we set closing for later that month. We were excited, of course, but I just couldn't let myself get my hopes up again until I had the keys in my hand and the house was officially ours. I just knew that something would happen along the way--the inspection wouldn't pan out, the owner would back out, the financing would fall through--to make this not happen. The sale was completed and the house was ours and we could finally be excited about this big step in our lives. It turns out that I think I like the house we did get more than I would have liked the house we missed out on, and it's probably just one of those things that "happens for a reason" as everyone likes to say.

It's amazing how similar our house-buying experience was to our experience of trying to have kids. So now, I'm cautious as we pass the time to "get the keys" to this second baby. Until then, I wait....