The Race Continues...

Well, it's over. The race has finished, and here we are. The finale was interesting, it was fun to be in studio for the newscasts. It was great to see everyone and, for the most part, be excited for each other. We had some friends and family at the studio, and they got to take a tour as we did our thing, getting pictures taken and that sort of thing.

We were a runner up. I could say I'm disappointed in the outcome, but that would be a lie. :) Of course, the 10k prize would have been great, but we did all win, in a way. I've been saying that from the starting gun. We changed our outlook so much, and all by just making a few changes. We didn't stop living...we even went on a vacation. We overpayed bills. We just cut back here and there, opted to pay ourselves, and made some tough choices of need vs want. You don't have to live like a prisoner. Anyone can do it. Let me repeat that for the cheap seats... ANYONE CAN DO IT! Even if you just improve things a little bit, a tiny bit...you're that much better off than you were. If five families, five ordinary families with no lottery winning or anything like that, can swing their net worth in a positive direction by a combined $145 thousand, then surely you can swing your net worth by something. What can you do in 8 months? 1 thousand? 10 thousand?

On the drive home, I looked at Jess and said "Think we can do the same in another 8 months?" So, we're starting our own race again. We're going to keep pushing, as if we just started. In other news, we're mostly moved in (still a ton of unpacking to do), and we're ready to kick off the next steps for the adoption, starting with our homestudy.

The race continues!

Dave

This is the end...

...my only friend, the end. (10 points if you get the reference.) So, here we are at the end of the Race. It was amazing, and I can't wait to see how we stacked up. And as I predicted at the start of this thing, it's also a beginning. We close on the new house this week. We proceed with the home study this month. We start making tons of changes, though hopefully we keep the lessons we've learned. As I've mentioned before, it's like a whole new race about to start. I don't know yet if we are winners or just not-as-big-winners, but I feel like a million bucks. I want to thank our coaches Kim, Andrea, and Jayme for being such great teachers and motivators. And the rest of the staff at Wright-Patt Credit Union for all their help, as well. And thanks to Dan Edwards and Larry Hansgen for making our interviews enjoyable. Thanks to Chris Gardner for putting these blogs up, for managing the circus at times. And now, let the next race begin!

Dave