Apartment in Florence: Prayer Please!!!

As most of you know, Ross has been in Italy for two weeks.  First he led UCF's vision trip and then he stayed to look for an apartment for us.  I wanted to share some prayer requests with the blogging world because, hey, more people praying never hurts! :)

To make a long story short, after a week of searching with nothing but discouragements, Ross found an awesome apartment for our family in Florence.  God totally provided the opportunity to see it at the last minute, just hours before he was leaving to come back home.  It has everything we thought "it would be nice to have...but we don't really expect to get" - like a utility room (so we don't have to do laundry in the kitchen or bathroom), 3 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, lots of living space, a decent sized kitchen, and even a private garden with a stone terrace!  Amazing!

All that said, Ross had to leave before a contract could be put on it for us.  We are signing the contract and faxing it back to Italy today, then the land owner has to accept it.  She has already turned down a potential renter because they own a pit-bull.  We obviously are young, with a baby, and two pets so we are praying that she will feel compelled to rent to us even though there are surely things she could object to.  

So PLEASE join us in prayer this weekend:

1) That the landowner (who lives next door to our apartment, if we get it) will want to rent to us - baby, pets, and all!

2) That she would accept a slightly lower price than what she was asking in exchange for a long-term contract.

3) That Michelle, our coworker who is helping us try to secure the apartment, will find favor in the eyes of the landowner when she meets with her on our behalf on Monday.

4) Finally, praise God for bringing this wonderful place into our path and pray that He will work everything out for us to get it!

We will hopefully know for sure early next week and, if we get it, I'll post some pictures then! :)