Still no house

By the numbers:

• 52 - the number of days since we first looked at this house.

• 44 - the number of days since we signed the contract on the house saying we would close July 1.

• 15 - the number of days we've been in breach of that contract because we didn't close on the 1st.

• 9 - the number of days we've been officially without a place of residence (I don't want to say homeless, because as bad as this situation is I know there are people in much much worse, at least we have friends and family that can put a roof over our heads for a while).

• ? - the amount of money we have spent on hotels and food (though greatly reduced thanks to good friends!).

• 5 - the number of potential closing dates that we have had so far.
  

• 3 - the number of "worse case scenarios" that have already come and gone.

• 2 - the number of moving trucks we've had to use (our original movers had to take our stuff from their truck last week and move it into a Uhaul since we couldn't get in the house).
  

• 1 - the number that you should add to all of these numbers since we aren't closing today.

• 1 - the number of days we have been told we have left to wait before we can close.

• 12:00 - the time we are supposed to close tomorrow - we'll see.

What Happened Today
We should have closed today. Instead, after everything was supposedly finalized, our "wonderful" bank decided to come up with yet another condition for our loan. They wanted more paperwork from our builder about the warranty on the house. Our builder sent them the standard forms that they send to every lender over a month ago, but the bank for whatever reason decided today that wasn't good enough. Seriously???

What's really frustrating about all of this is that there is nothing we can look back on and say, "Oh well, if we had done this differently we wouldn't be in this boat." Not a single one of these delays had anything to do with us, our credit, or anything. It's all just formalities and paperwork, and people not doing their jobs when they are supposed to. There isn't a single thing we could have done to prevent this.

I feel like we've been on a rollercoaster ride this whole time. Up and down, up and down. We're going to close, no we're not . . . etc. I've always thought of myself as a pretty positive person. I've even tried my best to put a good spin on all of this ("we're just on a nice long vacation" or "well, at least we're not moving furniture in 100+ degree weather"), but this has stressed us so much that the last few days, both Brandon and I have even started to fight nausea on and off. It's becoming physical! It's very hard to put on a happy face when your stomach is churning.

As a friend pointed out, this is becoming a test of Christian virtue. I'm really struggling with keeping positive and not letting anger get the best of me. This isn't affecting my faith, but I'm afraid it's affecting how I show it - and not in a good way. At least, this hasn't had a negative influence on mine and Brandon's relationship. If anything, it has brought us closer together - I'm so glad we have each other through this. So there's a positive spin!

Please keep us in your prayers!