This past weekend Kendrick and I packed up and said goodbye to our little apartment we lived in for the past 3 years. During those years I’ve done my fair share of complaining about what it lacked, and poor Kendrick would have to listen to me go on and on about why we were paying so much for such a “crappy” apartment.  Kendrick and I have learned to adopt a new way of thinking when it comes to our living conditions here. We realize that this is a very expensive area to live, but it also is an area of incredible opportunity. Even though we do not own our house, we do have a roof over our head. We have enough money for food, travel, and entertainment. We don’t live in a huge home, but we have sunshine about 325 days a year. We are 30 minutes south of San Francisco, and can be in Napa Valley in less than 2 hours, Lake Tahoe in 3 hours, Los Angeles in 5 hours,  and have endless hiking trails right here within a 10-mile radius.

Long story short, we are VERY blessed. Our last night in our apartment, I was feeling pretty emotional and it was hitting me how good we had it; and that I had really grown to appreciate our little “cave” as we called it. Instead of finding things that I didn’t like about it, I made a list of things that we did like. I wrote the list as a letter addressed to our baby  so that one day he or she can read it and know how thankful we were for our little home.

 

Well Baby,

This is our last night. Daddy and I have lived in this apartment almost 3 years and now it’s time to move to a bigger place to make room for you! Change is always uncomfortable and although we’ve done our fair share of complaining about our little apartment it really has been good to us.

Here are some positive things/things we are going to miss:

1. The big Oak tree outside our bedroom and kitchen windows. Even though we didn’t have any outdoor space we loved looking at that tree instead of a parking lot. We shared many Sunday breakfasts with that view and I will truly miss it.
2. Our apartment housed my little sister Lizzy for a summer and my middle sister  Alishia for 3 months (after she moved from Pennsylvania). Alishia slept on our couch and Lizzy on an air mattress. Lizzy toughed it out with no A/C for a whole summer! Luckily, when Alishia moved in we had purchased an A/C unit so she didn’t have it quite as rough 😉
3. The peace and quiet. We got really lucky with our neighbors. We didn’t have any issues whatsoever. The woman on our left was super quiet and lived alone. And there were a couple tenants that cycled through the unit on the right. We didn’t have anyone above us which was great and unfortunately in our new place we do, so that will be something to get used to.
4. Having a Dishwasher. That was a great plus!
5. Other than a mold issue in our bathroom, we didn’t have any other substantial issues.
6. Having  a ceiling fan in our bedroom.
7. Having a large storage unit for our bikes- luckily we didn’t have to keep them in our apartment! (Yes, I have friends who have had to do that.)
8. We were less than 2 miles from our Studio, can’t beat that! (*Ironically we moved right up the street, so we still have the same commute!)
9. We had exactly enough space for what we needed. We learned to love living small and only keep what we needed. It helped us to appreciate the things we did have instead of focusing on buying stuff we didn’t need.
10. We were in  a safe neighborhood with quaint tree lined streets and nearby parks.
11. **Shh don’t tell anyone about this but we were within walking distance of a doughnut shop. This treat was only reserved for Sundays, the Lord’s day. (Because of course God loves doughnuts.)

As I mentioned, we actually found a great new apartment on the same exact street!! Talk about luck! Even though we no longer have a big Oak tree outside our apartment, or a ceiling fan in our bedroom; we are still close to the Studio, the doughnut shop, and a neighborhood park we can walk to with the baby.

It’s funny how God works in mysterious ways. Back in January, when I was home visiting my parents, I told my mom how Kendrick and I wanted to start a family but that I was worried because we were living in a 1-bedroom apartment. I told her I knew that it would never be perfect timing, and that we just had to trust that God would provide for us.

Here we are 5 months later and I’m seeing it all unfold. He knew what we would need before even we did.

Here’s a photo I took the last morning:

View from our Bedroom window

One of the positive things about our new place is our outdoor space! Being Brazilian, my husband grew up eating lots of churrasco (grilled meat). We finally were able to buy a grill and made our first meal on Sunday night!

 

Special thank you to my sister who helped us with the move, I don’t know what we would have done without you!

❤

Angie