Advice When Applying for a Mortgage

With breaks for first-time home buyers and the market being the way it is, is this a good time to apply for a mortgage?

Here is our situation: married, 4 young children, living for many years in a home owned by my mother-in-law for $350/mo. I stay home with our kids, but will be back to work FT in the IL public school system beginning in 2011 when my youngest starts kindergarten (I'll have my masters). My husband currently makes $93,000 as a tenured public school teacher. We have approx. $12,000 in CC debt which we are just swimming with(not accumulating new debt, just unable to cut into balance by much). We also have a car payment. For several reasons, we feel the need to leave our current living situation. Yes, it is cheap to live here, but it is too small and we are somewhat living under my MIL's thumb. The house is old, and we pay all bills and almost all repairs anyway. Someone suggested that we would be better off in many ways by purchasing our own home, which is a dream and a plan once I'm back to work full time (and have paid off debts). This person suggested figuring out a way to do it now while things are more affordable, and with breaks for first-time home buyers. I guess my question comes down to this, knowing our income will go up approximately 50%+ in two years, should we just suck it up and wait? Should we find a way to incorporate our CC debt into a mortgage and benefit from lower interest and tax breaks? I hope I'm making sense and that you're not rolling your eyes in your head right now. The suggestions have been coming from someone I trust. I never thought it possible to be a homeowner until I'm back working, but now I've gotten a new perspective and glimmer of hope of getting out of here. I've done enough stupid in my day, I want to do smart now. I'm guessing almost any mortgage broker would find us a way to get a mortgage now, as long as they're profiting, but I don't want that unless it's smart.