Staying put

Well, after much discussion, thought, and prayer, we made the decision to pull our house off the market for now, so we'll be staying put in the DC area for awhile longer.  We probably should have tried a year ago at the latest before the market turned so sour for sellers.  The market is completely saturated with so many homes in foreclosure and with people in trouble needing to sell their house… combined with a much smaller set of viable buyers due to the credit crunch, prices keep dropping and dropping, lower than we were willing to go, and we were also not willing to dump any more money into the house to try to make it stand out any more in the sea of homes on the market. All the advice is that if you don't have to sell now, don't.

So we'll sit and be patient.  Who knows how long it will be.  We're disappointed that we can't move closer to Beth's family now, but we're ok with it.  We're thankfully not in a position where we have to sell, I have a good job, the girls are happy, and even though I wouldn't have plopped down the money if we weren't trying to sell, at least we now get to enjoy the new silestone countertop, sink, faucet, and laminate flooring in the kitchen.  It does make the kitchen much more pleasant - I hated, hated the old baby blue counter and old, stained vinyl that we put up with for over two years.

Plus, I'll get to remain with The National Christian Choir for awhile longer - next year is the 25th anniversary season, so there will be some exciting things we're doing.  Our recording this year is a new Christmas album.  In July, we're giving a concert at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, VA, to open the 300th annual Church of the Brethren conference (7,000 people). And we're ending the season on May 5, 2009, with a special 25th Anniversary Concert at the Strathmore Music Hall, accompanied by full orchestra. The concert will consist of the top 15 or so songs that current singers, alumni, and partners have voted as their favorites from a list of all songs the choir has ever sung, and we saw the winners last rehearsal (among the highlights for me will be The Mind of Christ, No More Night, The Majesty and Glory of Your Name, Psalm 95, Creation Hymn, You Are My Hiding Place, Midnight Cry, and Hallelujah Chorus). It will be a very moving concert, and it will also be recorded live and released as next year's recording.  Hope to see you there!