A New Home for Christmas

On December 15, 2008 it was a bitter cold day.  We scheduled two closing that day with my clients, a young family, who were selling their home in Castle Pines and purchasing their new home in South Aurora, about 15 miles away.

We timed these transactions so they could celebrate Christmas in their new home.  And all was looking good.  We closed the sale of their home in Castle Pines in the morning without a hitch and went directly to their closing of their new home that they had put under contract one week ago!  To top it off a third party large relocation company, who was not known for speedy service, was handling the sale of their new home. It would be no less than monumental to close this transaction that soon. Their lender was confident we could close quickly so we set out to do just that.

A typical closing then took about an hour and a half and this one took over three and a half hours.  My clients were extremely patient as people darted in and out of the closing room requesting more information to fax to the underwriter and new documents for my clients to sign.  True to his word their loan officer was right and we finally closed to a huge sigh of relief from everyone.
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Now much earlier that morning my wife and I got “the call” from our daughter, Audrey, who was going in labor with our first grandchild.  She and her husband, Clayton, would be heading to the downtown Denver hospital about the time of the start of the first closing.  My clients and all parties to both closings were wonderful and excited for me as I made and answered many calls for labor updates during the closings.

As the afternoon closing dragged on I didn’t think I’d make it to the hospital in time for the delivery.  It turns out our grandson was being stubborn and was in no hurry to come out.  I arrived about 5:30 to several good friends and of course my wife, Ginny, who had been there for hours.

About an hour and a half after I got there Ginny and I got to witness the miracle of Audrey holding our grandson.  I broke down in tears with Heavenly thanks as Audrey handed their son, Merrick Thomas Howes, to me to hold him for the first time.  And oh how I did not want to ever let go.

Yes it was a great day for all, just in time for Christmas.