And Just Like That...

...three good things in a row.

Three REALLY good things in a row.

Our banker gave us the thumbs-up to go ahead and build our little cabin on our land- something that's been on hold pending the sale of our current house that's been for sale for FIVE YEARS- right after we bought our 'we could live here forever' land 3 miles from where we are now. And while it would be better to have our current house sold before building, our debt to income ratio INCLUDING both house payments (old house plus new yet-to-be-built house) was only off by 3 (three) points. That 3 points, coupled with the 2 (two) points our credit score was lacking were all that's been holding this project up, and bless his heart, our banker shook my hand and told me that they'll do it in-house because we've been good customers for over 15 years and it's just time for us to do this.

And the benefit is that we get to build the new place, move stuff over there that we KNOW we want to keep, sort thru the rest here at the old place, have a big honkin' yard sale, and donate/dumpster the rest without any "live in an apartment/store all our stuff" phase that new-home construction after a house sale generally entails. Which is good, because I truly don't think either Ward or I could survive that mess.

We may have buyers for our current house, and they are not in a hurry to move out of their old house, which would afford us to do exactly the above scenario, then transition smoothly (two words that are rarely found next to each other in our family conversations for most of the last decade) into selling this house.

On our way to dinner with the above folks, the doctor at MDAnderson called to give us the results of Ward's recent scans- All Clear. No cancer there, they'll see us in 4 months for the next scans. That. That right there, was the Other Shoe I was mortally afraid of having not just dropped, but slammed up against our heads in the wake of the Loan Approval/Pending Buyers One-Two that we'd received earlier.

And it didn't happen.

The Good kept coming.

We met our neighbors at the restaurant and I told them the Three Good Things. They grinned from ear to ear and asked me "Can you stand so much good news all at once?"

I told them that quite frankly it scared the shit outta me.

Dot looked at me and said "Just GO with it".

And I'm trying. I'm taking deep breath after deep breath and each one clears a few more moldy cobwebs from my lungs, from my heart.

Maybe it's finally Over. Maybe that almost 6 weeks in Houston filled with fear and terror and sheer relentless hell were the Final Tidal Wave of the 8 years that started with "It's just a little skin cancer", and my family has finally landed tattered, worn, twitchy but still firmly intact into the Calmer Safe Harbor of the Sea of Life.

Ward poked Alec and said "Look at your mom, son".

Alec, a little startled, whispered "What's wrong with her?"

Ward said "Nothing son- she's smiling".

And I am.