Monday, April 26, 2021

Monday, April 26, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2007. We took Mattie to visit Luray Caverns in Virginia. I wasn't sure how Mattie was going to take to this cave experience. I would say for 6 years old, he managed it wall. He altered between fascinated and scared. At one point, when we got to the part where there are organ pipes playing music in the cave, Mattie ran to Peter. So halfway, we carried Mattie through the adventure, but he loved it and we are glad to have these memories. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 32,116,822
• Number of people who died from the virus: 572,614

Our newsletter went out today, and we literally had a big jump in donations. Yesterday our thermometer was at $66,668 and look at it tonight. Almost a 10K jump! We are moving in the right direction, but I can definitely say each year at this time is very stressful. As I never know if we will meet our financial goal. 

Since February, though I haven't reported it on the blog, Peter and I have been looking for a house. Our city has changed dramatically all around us and we need more greenery and peace. In addition, we need to find a house that will accomodate my parents. So this is close to mission impossible as possible. Yesterday we put in an offer on a house. It was a solid offer and the listing agent conveyed to our realtor that we were the top offer and most likely going to get the house. So I went to bed with that notion! We not only offered the highest amount, but I wrote a personal letter to the owner. 

This morning, we learned that the owner decided to sell her house to the other family who made an offer on her house. Why? NOT because their offer was higher, because it wasn't! In reality our offer was $50k over what she was asking, but she still wanted an additional $50k on top of what we offered her. Because we wouldn't give her more (as the house needed months of renovations), she went passive aggressive and sold her house to the other family who offered less! Does this make any sense? Doesn't an owner want to sell to the highest bidder? Apparently not! Being a mental health provider gives me insights, insights that I felt right from the beginning when working with this house owner. So perhaps she did us a favor. 

I have looked at around 35 to 40 homes since February. Many of them don't meet our needs, especially since I need first floor living for my dad. I just can't believe that one minute I think I am buying a house and the next, I am back to square one. All of this doesn't come at a good time, particularly because it is Walk season!