House hunting

We are blessed and content to be settled in La Paz. We praise God who has helped us to get this far, and trust He is with us and continues to guide in every way.
House hunting wasn't something that I looked forward to. We wanted to find a house that would be suitable for our family for a long time, that we could use in home schooling, ministry, bible studies and outreach. The list of what we wanted in a house was fairly extensive with these things in mind, and may not have been difficult to find in a Canadian city, but we soon found that it was more difficult in La Paz.
The first night we arrived, we decided to go for a drive to get a feel for some neighbourhoods suggested to us by other TEAM missionaries. We ended up looking at a house that fit some of what we were looking for, but was being renovated. It had a lot of work to be done, and we were warned that taking over the renovation was not a good idea for us. We also saw another home that was beautiful and would have fit well, but definitely didn't fit the budget.
We continued to pray and search for the next 10 days, calling many numbers, practicing spanish on the phone, which is more difficult than face to face communication, and ended up seeing over 15 houses. We enjoyed Casa Buena, the guest house we were staying at, but were starting to feel like we were ready to get into a house. We continued to contact real estate agents, as well as drive around. We saw one house that didn't look great, but phoned anyways. The lady came, it was a fixer upper, and only had 3 bedrooms without any space for an office or homeschool. But the lady knew of another house she thought we might consider.
In an hour we were looking at another. It was bigger, had a yard (of cement) that the kids could play in, had a secure fence, but the price was a bit high. We decided to pray about it and look a bit more. We decided to make an offer on the house. It came with furniture, so we asked to drop the price by 20% if we didn't use any furniture, but kept the stove and fridge. They came back and said no, 15% but without anything. At least that is what I thought was said. When we went to look it over and talk some more, it was 15% less and with all the furniture that we had a use for.
We took it! And feel God led us to a house that could be home for awhile. We pray that we will be able to use it for many wonderful times of sharing the love of Christ with others.
A bonus is that we are close to a high school that has a basketball court with shade within a block. It may be a great place to reach out to youth through sports ministry. We also like the location for there are many houses around us, as well as access to a quick route to get to El Faro, the church we are working with in La Paz. God answered our prayers in a big way with this house, praise His name!

Psalm 43:3-5 Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness; let us exalt his name together. I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears. Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces.