It was a long process to determine where we were going to be moving for Nick's new job after Stanford. He would be working for a private equity firm and there was a "dating" process to determine which seasoned CEO he would apprentice under. The opportunities were all over the country. Because the clock was ticking until we needed to be out of student housing and we needed to get Emmy enrolled in school before it closed down for the summer, we were anxiously trying to determine all of our housing contingency plans. Castro Valley seemed to be the most ideal place between proximity to San Francisco (where Nick's work was headquartered,) and to Kris, and to schools that ranked the highest in the area, and we could get a larger house for our large family that would fall within our budget. Kris helped to connect us with a family who was looking for renters and they kindly said that they were in no rush, they wanted us to rent their home and we could get back to them once we had more information. It was such relief to know we had found our place, given the volatility of the rental market in the bay area. We found out that we'd be staying in the bay area in mid-May, and the minute after Nick informed me, I called the woman whose home we were planning to rent to tell her that it was a "go." She profusely apologized that her husband signed a contract with someone else earlier that morning. I panicked. How would we find a place to live when there were so few houses available and each one was inundated with applicants? I scoured every search engine I could and landed on a house in Palomares Hills. As it turned out, it had just become available again because the previous prospective renters backed out of the contract. I was able to meet up with the landlord (and current tenant) for a showing on a week night and was amazed that it fit all of our needs. I applied immediately, praying that it would work out. Later that night, Kris and JP drove past it and realized that it was right across the street from Clairey's best friend's house. Kris promptly called the friends' mom and chatted with her about the situation. Come to find out later, our rental application was chosen because all the neighbors vouched for us. God is just so good.
