Sunday, May 3, 2015

Looking, Part 3

Part 3 of "Where I’ve Been"


We struggled for a while about whether to put an offer on the place or not. But we had looked at so many other properties and nothing else in our target price range seemed to have what this place had. We eventually put in an offer…

which was rejected.

It was a relief in a way because we took that as God’s answer and started looking again.

Looked and prayed.

And kept coming back to the property on the hill.


I think it was about a month more of looking, praying, struggling through the pros and cons and still showing our home that we tried again with an offer. 
They counter offered. 
We accepted and had a contract to buy the property contingent on selling our home. 

{I’m feeling a little bit stressed thinking back over it all.}

So life continued with the waiting and the showings and improving where we could and with wondering and praying...

Some of our favorite visitors during the house showings
On the morning of one showing someone decorated the desk
Trying to worship in the midst of inconvenience 


...Until the owners of the park-like hill got another offer and we had to decide whether to remove our contingency or let it go. 

There wasn't any easy answer, no unmistakable sign about what we were to do, no doors slamming or windows opening. We just had to make a decision.

We decided to remove the contingency.

We opened up all options for our home-it was available for sale, lease or lease-to-own.

We prayed harder than ever and cleaned and spruced our home harder than ever and in the midst of the craziness I was impressed to pray more for the people God would have to be in our house and focus less on just being rid of the property.

God answered those prayers He impressed me to pray.

One afternoon I was outside with the kids. They were doing their usual thing, pulling toys out of the garage, applying art all over the concrete with chalk, generally making a creative mess. The house was pretty clean from a mad-cleaning-dash to get ready for a showing the day before, but the kid-clutter was already creeping out of it’s places, meals were being made, snacks retrieved. 
(“Clean” in a house of five youngsters is a fleeting state.) 
We had recently made the decision to be open to renting, so recently that it wasn't in the realtor notes yet. I noticed a young couple with 2 small children looking at another house on the street. My mother-in-law had walked over for a few minutes with a niece or a nephew or both perhaps (did I mention we have lived semi-across the street from Josh’s parents almost the whole time we have been in Oklahoma?). Her presence gave me the bit of courage I needed to do something a little out-of-character for me -approach the couple and their realtor and ask if they were interested in renting. They were actually only interested in renting and to squish the details of the next several days together- they and their parents decided to lease our home for a year!

The lease for our renters AND the contract on our new home were signed on the same day!!! Actually in the same meeting with our realtor!

Wow, Lord, wow. You, the God of every little detail, You did that, You did that in Your perfect time, in Your perfect way and thank You, thank You, thank You!

The month that followed was fast and furious. 

The waiting was done. It was time to hurry.

Goodbye old neighborhood!

2 comments:

  1. Oh sweet friend- love it here! A beautiful blog! Can't wait to read more!!!

    ReplyDelete

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