The house is still for sale. A couple of nibbles but no big bites yet. Of course, it’s only been 12ish days, so it’s alright, but…it’d be awfully nice to sell soon! The most frustrating aspect of having to quickly vacate the premises for showings is the few times that we’ve ended up having no shows. We get the place all prettified, move on outta here only to find out that the ding-bats decided to not actually visit our home. VERY annoying. And yesterday I got a realtor’s call: “Yes, I know this is short notice, but we’re in your neighborhood. Can we come see your home right now?” I paused for a moment thinking about it and decided, sure! We can make that work.

“Can you just give us about 15 minutes to clear outta here?” I mean, my gosh, I do have three children. Any parent knows that on a good day it takes several minutes to get out the door. Plus, we’d just gotten back from the bus stop so were in the middle of afterschool snack. I didn’t think 15 minutes was asking too much. I probably could’ve done it in seven if need be, but wanted to give myself extra buffer.

“No, I’m sorry,” he said. “That’s much too long. Nevermind. Maybe we’ll come another time and give you PLENTY of notice. It’s just that some people WORK and aren’t home during the middle of the afternoon, so it’s not a problem.”

Wow. Whatevs. I don’t want you meany-pantses buying our house anyway.

Anyway, more and more I see how this process is so very similar to the adoption process. People have judged me, people have mocked me when I’ve made this comparison, but it’s true. Obviously, buying a home is NOT identical to adopting a child, but still…the biggest similarity lately is how we have to get our hopes up but not TOO much but just ENOUGH. This is so reminiscent of being shown a birth mom’s or foster-to-adopt child’s profile. You have to let your heart feel it. You have to envision this little person in your family. You have to start to love them a little on the off chance that it is “the one.” We’ve had this with a couple of homes now, where we get excited and think, “Oh, this is totally the one; it’ll totally work.” I can totally picture us there, so I think it must be The One! But then either it doesn’t end up working out or (like currently) we have to just sit and wait and hope that no one else gets it before we can. (In this market, it’s better to wait until we have an offer on our home before we make an offer on another home. So we wait.)

It’s also so frustrating having no idea what the timing will be. I feel a bit restless, like a caged animal. I can’t plan making dinner since someone may call right when I’m in the middle of cooking or they’ll want to be here right at dinnertime. I can’t start packing the house since I have no idea when we’ll be moving, and I can’t make a huge ‘ol mess with crap ‘n boxes everywhere.

Another similarity: the physical response. Obviously I was pregnant with neither. I did not physically carry Kayliana in my womb. We ARE expecting a house, but it’s not – or shouldn’t be – causing pregnancy side effects. Yet it is (or it’s an excuse to). Cravings. I have been craving Cherry Coca Cola Slurpies. Like crazy. I dream about them. I NEED them. On a couple of nights these slurpies have even replaced my 5pm glass of wine. Thanks to this bizarre craving though, Mike and I might just have come up with our million dollar idea. I’ve heard of “Wine Floats” (like a Root Beer float but with wine. I’ve yet to try one). But we think there should be “Wice-ies” – wine icies. (We’re still working on the title). They’d be like a slurpie or snow cone with wine deliciousness inhabiting that ice crystal goodness. Sounds good to me!