We did it. Maybe it’s too soon to write about this because it hasn’t sunk in and I’m still in a daze. But here’s what happened:

God reminded us of the original vision. Read more about that here.  We put our rental property on the market. We asked the Lord to bring us the perfect buyers that would continue our business, take good care of our tenants, continue to use our team, and be blessed by this sale as much as we are. He did just that. We closed on Friday April 13th. As soon as we got the check we went to our bank and payed off our home mortgage and the home equity loan we used to renovate the rental property prior to sale. The whole thing took about 10 minutes. I got a little deposit slip. I thought there would be more fanfare but I’m not complaining!

Next we rushed home and gave the kids the laptops we bought while we were waiting for the title company to cut our check (six hours!). The kids had been using laptops that are about 10 years old, weigh about 14 pounds each and don’t seem to support any software. They were excited, to say the least.

Then we took the dogs to the kennel and hit the road for the victory lap. By then it was about 4:30. I called Great Lakes and payed off my student loan. After paying $511/month for the past 15 years, I still owed over $79,000. I would have been paying it until age 62. I felt I would never be free from it.  It’s hard to describe my sense of relief and gratitude to cancel that debt.

We went to Chicago to celebrate. We had dinner at Xoco, one of our favorites.  They have great churros but they got devoured before I could take a picture.

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In the morning we went to the Art Institute of Chicago. We got a family membership.  It was about the same price as entry for the day and we can get in free next time without waiting in line.

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Next to Pilsen for a late lunch at one of Juan’s favorite restaurants, Canton Regio.

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Then home in an April snowstorm. I think God sent it so we would appreciate not having to shovel the apartments.

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