finding a house

Maybe this is normal, but we've been back in PA for about nine months now and have yet to find that house we've been looking for.
We started looking in Lancaster City, which is a relatively small but fun city. Tiffany and I both have friends there, and have lived there in the past so it seemed like a good place to settle in. The other good thing is you can find really cool townhomes there that have a lot of character, such as hardwood floors and exposed brick walls, for relatively cheap. However, after a bit we decided the city might not be the best place to raise a little tyke, who will inevitably want to go outside and play. Then since you probably don't have a yard in the city you end up with your kid playing in the street, or you have to go down to the park every time. The other thing is that the schools in the city are kind of scary. So we realized that the city might not be the best idea after all.
Then for a while we kicked around the idea of going back to Iowa. There were benefits as far as career and eduaction were concerned, and we loved Ames, friends we had there, and Cornerstone church too! We were second guessing ourselves and thinking maybe we moved back home too soon and wished the Iowa-era of our lives could have been a bit longer. After a while we decided to stay put in PA, for the same reasons we originally left Iowa (family). We also didn't want to end up running back out to Iowa just because we had fond memories and hadn't given our life back in PA a chance to fully blossom. It just takes a while to get re-connected where ever you are.
After we decided we were staying in PA for sure, we started looking at houses in the towns surrounding the area where I grew up. Houses outside the city are more expensive, so it's been a little harder finding a house we both like and can afford. There have been several that came close, but we never ended up going through and making an actual offer on anything. So that brings us up to present day, and the search goes on!
We both are really looking forward to finding somewhere more permanent, and just settling in for a while. And just like anything else, I'm sure someday we will look back on the whole process and realize God was leading us and that we learned some good lessons along the way. At least that's the goal!