Do you ever...

...pick the wrong check out line at the grocery store?

You know, there are so many options and you really just want a quick and easy check out experience, and one line just looks like it's moving fast than the rest, so you hop in that one?  And then ten minutes later you're wondering if you should move to another line or just stick it out since you've already invested so much time in the slowest. line. ever.?

Yeah, that's kind of us and this whole house deal.  (And here you were thinking it was an elaborate analogy leading into an apology for being MIA for weeks... nope! But I am sorry... really!)

We went under contract the middle of June, and everything was going well.  The house was in pre-foreclosure and we knew there was a chance the bank would ignore our contract with the seller and auction it off at the scheduled auction on July 3rd.  The morning of the 3rd we learned that the bank had postponed the auction for a couple weeks--not exactly the news we were hoping for, but still good news.

A couple hours later our realtor called us back to tell us she had just been informed that the seller had filed for bankruptcy.  The house was now under the protection of the bankruptcy court, and the seller needed to petition for permission to sell it to us anyway.  It would be at least two months before the court even issued a decision.

We sent the seller an amend/extend that would push the closing date out long enough to allow for the slow-grinding wheels of justice (or something like that) and asked for confirmation that she was, in fact, still intending to sell us the house.  We heard nothing (surprise surprise).

Today we learned that the seller is in jail.  ?!

Her ex-husband is trying to get power of attorney so he can sign our notice of termination so we can get our earnest money back.  We don't know if there's any possibility of him being allowed to take over the contract and still sell us the house, or if the seller's incarceration will have any effect on what the court decides about her bankruptcy situation.  We're thinking this chapter of the epic (epically awful) house search is probably closed.

We're vacillating somewhere between heartbreak and good riddance.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us throughout this whole process... and thanks for your continued prayers.  We need them.  A lot.