This weekend we will officially take our house off of the market.  To be completely honest we are happy with this decision.  We have had a few very interested parties but everyone lacked the credit needed to purchase and we were not comfortable becoming landlords.  So we are staying put for awhile.  I am glad we went through the process though, mainly we have made so many wonderful improvements that we LOVE our house.  Improvements that I don't think we would have invested in if we were not trying to sell.  Even just decluttering and reorganizing our home has made a significant difference in the amount of space we have.  Our only qualms are 1) the bathroom issue (1 bathroom to 6 people) 2) the crazy circles I drive around town to drop and pick the kids up from school (about 1 h 45m a day in the van) .  Both of these are inconveniences and not impossibilities.     The GREAT news is that the combination of paying off our car with out tax return and deciding to not take on a larger mortgage payment in its place has made it possible for me to be a full time stay at home mom!!!  This had never been possible before as I have always worked 1-3 part time jobs to help make ends meet.  Torrey will finally complete his 9 year bachelor's degree in 3 weeks and we have decided to put all of our extra spinning plates down and hang our extra hats up for awhile to just regain some balance in our lives.  We want to refocus on our children and try to make up for lost time while they are still young.  Our focus has been on work, ministry, school, adoption, our home, etc for so long that our children have never really experienced the old fashioned family dinner.  And they are missing out on the joy of having their parents boty home on a regular basis. We have been tag team parenting for a long time that the children are always surprised to have both of us in the room at the same time.  (Sifan especially will question which one of us is leaving when she sees us together at home :( )
Staying where we are may not afford us much privacy or time in the bathroom but it will give us more time to regain some of the quality family time we have missed by being so "busy".