We found a house! 
All has been approved and we have a move in date for this coming Wednesday!
Our things will arrive Thursday!  
Oh, how we are so ready to have our own place with all our own things that we haven't seen in 7 months!  Ahhh, bliss!
We'll need to be very smart in organizing because it's going to be a tight squeeze.  And the garage is, in essence, going to become the catch all room.  The pantry/utility/storage room.
We'll be sure to share more pictures as we get settled!

For my friends in the US who are curious about our relocation and every step of the process, this is just for you. We're quickly learned that house hunting in this area is not an easy task.  Rental properties are in high demand.  The pool of desired renters is much higher than the pool of rental properties available.  This means acting fast!!

There are various types of rental property on the market.

a flat (an apartment) 

a detached house (a regular ole house in America) 

a semi-detached (something like a townhouse, but only attached by one side)

a terraced house (town house attached on both sides)

We're not even looking at flats.  We've been there, done that and time to move on.

One of about 5 flats we lived in, in Prague.  Ours was the light yellow building, middle right.

Our flat in Spain.  We were not on the top floor, but one down on the left side of the building.

Plus, there are so many more of the other options available that it's not even been necessary to look closely at flats.  We've mostly seen detached and semi-detached properties at this point.  A few terraced houses have popped up in our search, but the layout or location has not been ideal.

Properties are normally very close together.  Sometimes there is space to walk between buildings and sometimes not. Detached houses in a neighborhood are still going to sit very close together and may not have much of a yard, unless you live in the country.

The term "yard" is actually not used here.  Every advert I've seen refers to it as a garden.  Most gardens are small, maybe the size of a room in a house, although some are quite large.  We've seen all kinds of variations of gardens.  Some are a decent size and some are nothing more than a bricked area.  We're ok with that.  We'd just be happy with some kind of outdoor space.

Our house in Vienna, with a sprawling yard (or rather garden)
Last week we looked at 2 properties.  We were ready to take the second place.  The kitchen and bathrooms were a bit tired (out-dated), giving me some reservations about the place, but I chalked it up to being things I could live with in the long run.  Little did we know it would not be that easy.

The landlord, an elderly couple, wanted to meet us.  No problem there.  We'd met landlords before and had good relationships with them in the past.  However, the meeting was rather strained.  I'll just say this couple was very fussy and I felt like we were having to defend ourselves as good people the entire time we met!!

We left feeling very drained and somewhat defeated.  We decided this was not a good match for us.  I'm afraid I would have been on edge the entire time we lived there, worrying about every little thing!
Even though I felt beat down after that encounter, we were ok with the outcome.  I mentioned before that we were looking to live in Horsham.  At one point we decided to widen our search a bit and that's what took us to look at the "fussy landlord" house, located in the neighboring town of Crawley.

We felt it was the Lord's way of showing us He wanted us in Horsham.  We have some friends in Horsham and there are some ministry opportunities that we are really interested in being a part of.

It gave us a peace that we needed to be patient, knowing that God has just the right place for us in Horsham.   Some things are progressing and as soon as I am able I will share more.  Hopefully, we'll have a home soon! Signed, the happy house hunter!

We've landed in England!  And so thankful we had a good flight! We had FIFTEEN bags!  And every single one of them arrived.  We were so thankful.  The biggest hurdle was getting them from baggage claim out to our colleagues who were waiting for us.  We could hire a guy and his cart to help us or each of us push a cart.  The kids are now big enough to mostly push a cart themselves, so we opted for that.  And we made it!  A few difficult turns, but we made it.  We were in a jet lag stuppor that first day.  Since we arrived so early we decided to take a nap.  It was hard for us to all wake up, but we were a bit more coherent after that.  We kept it easy that first day just picking up a few things at the store and eating an early dinner.  We had a couple difficult nights of waking up around midnight or 1 and having a hard time going back to sleep.  So far, 2 nights in a row we have slept fine!

We're staying in a colleague's home while we look for a place.  It's in walking distance to our office and the high street.  It's nice since we aren't cleared to drive yet.  Hopefully we'll be driving soon.  I'll definitely have to post about that!

Costa Coffee is an English coffee house.  We had them in Prague and enjoyed going because of their babycino, frothy milk for the kiddos complete with a marshmallow and pretty design on top!  They are free if you purchase a regular size coffee!






It's going to take some time before we are really settled with a place, bank accounts, driving, schooling, etc.  Just trying to be patient in the wait!  We'll get there, slowly but surely!

If you've read my blog for very long you know we've been anticipating a move to England for a year.

The time has come!!
And by 11:25 am on Friday WE HAD OUR VISAS IN HAND!!! WOO HOO!!!