We have been searching for home. It is by God's grace and provision that we are even walking this path. I feel compelled to record everything we've been walking through on this journey that it might encourage someone else but also to remind myself of God's goodness and plan.
We are following His lead, praying, saving, wondering where our family will land and quietly anticipating what the Lord has in store for us.
Not Just Buying A House
Almost a year ago, we started making phone calls, doing research, figuring out our financial plan and understanding the market of real estate. As the year progressed we made lists of our needs and wants. We prayed about the timing. We paid off debt. We got all the paper work and approvals ready to go. We started looking at houses. As we started visiting properties, my heart and mind started to imagine what our life would look like in each of these homes. Was this where we would raise our family? Then my mind and heart began to go deeper...will we share God's love with these neighbors? Lord, is this neighborhood our ministry?
We are intentionally taking root where we hope God will use us to share the Gospel. Every house we see or neighborhood we visit, I am asking God to show us where He can use us best; regardless of my selfish desires. Which, by the way, is really hard to pray. Because houses and yards are so pretty!
But Not That House
House hunting is becoming a full time job. Between phone calls, scanning the suburbs for listings, going to see a listing and finding sitters EVERY. TIME. for the listing; it's...well, kind of exhausting (on top of my managing 4 kids and Joel managing his full time teaching and coaching career, I digress). As our search continues it has become apparent where God does not want us living. I mean, it's literally become comical and expected that the houses we see or plan to see will have a big, glaring, red flag of some sort or obstacle so that we cannot further pursue it.
To give you a few (laughable....go ahead, I have!) examples: flooded basement, extremely large dirt pile in basement, houses going under contract hours before or after we show up to a house, children getting sick so we have to cancel listings (to which those listings also go under contract 24hrs after we cancel), houses go on market and then oddly off market within hours of us booking a showing, I mean...I could go on. I have gotten to the point that when we book a showing I expect a call from our agent letting us know there's a problem or there's a reason to cancel. Like that one time I thought we had a solid showing lined up after church one Sunday afternoon, only to say to Joel, "Wouldn't it be funny if we got in the car and I had a call from Judy (our agent) canceling?" Because that's exactly what happened. Missed call from Judy. Awesome. Just hilarious....[Insert eye roll]
So fine. I decided to change my prayer from "God is this our house?" to "God show me that this is not our house". It worked. My confidence and faith grew as we stepped into each house. I knew God would make it incredibly obvious which houses were not ours. I became more aggressive in our search, being willing to step outside our comfort zone trusting God would make it known if this house was it.
This One House
But then...there was this one house that had no glaring red flags. We saw it on a whim after we decided the house now known affectionately as the "dirt-pile-lipstick-on-a-pig" house was clearly a no! It was out of our price range and a for sale by owner. It was on zillow. Joel suggested we not waste our showing time (and babysitters) and take a look.
It was the location and neighborhood we wanted. It met our needs, exceeded some of our expectations. It was the first house I genuinely felt confident about wanting to put an offer on. So we did. But after a few counters, it was a no. I really thought it would work out. I was disappointed.
That was April 20th.
As of noon on June 3rd, they accepted our offer and we had a contract. We left that house in April. We kept searching. They remained on the market, at times literally the only house in that price range in that town. Then they reduced their price (after raising it for some ridiculous, unknown reasons!) so we offered again in May. Still no meeting us. So we continued to shop. It was not until the first week of June when our realtor and lender (without us asking) made it known to us that we could raise our offer a bit more and still remain where we wanted to be financially. So we decided to offer again....and they took it!
Another Offer
Thursday evening, June 1st we had a verbal confirmation from the sellers for our offer. We signed the contract and sent it over at 7a Friday morning. Friday afternoon at 3:30p I received a call from our realtor that they had received another offer. We were completely shocked! After all this time on the market they suddenly had another offer on the table.
What?!
Now they were asking for all parties to submit their best and final offers by noon on Saturday June 3. I was actually very hesitant all of a sudden. My first thought was that they were bluffing to get us higher. It made me incredibly nervous to work with owners who would do this. I then thought maybe this was God's way of telling us this was not our house. We knew we weren't going to change our offer. We agreed on it. I felt very strongly that our offer was what God intended for us. If the sellers chose the other offer I was at peace that this was not our house. We'd come so far with these sellers to find out that these last few moments could make all the difference.
So we waited and prayed.
At 12:05p on Saturday June 3rd, we had a signed contract on the house. It was ours! It turns out that there really was another offer at the last minute. The sellers were incredibly honest, and nervous since they had verbally confirmed with us. Their agent recommended the change due to the other offer coming in. We were, as was our realtor, pretty sure we've been their first and only interested buyers since they came on the market in March. It amazes me that at the very end of all this I think God used that offer to help us fully trust Him and His plan for this house. We could have raised our offer or walked away. But we stood firm and felt that was what God was asking us to do. As we found out later, the other offer had been lower than ours. The sellers were actually relieved to sign our contract and stick with the original plan. I believe this offer helped them commit fully to our transaction too because it helped them see they weren't going to get much more for their house.
Unfolding Our Home
As exciting as it was to finally have a signed contract, there were more steps to be completed before we knew for sure that this house would be ours.
House hunting is only the tip of the iceberg. Below the surface, once a contract is signed, lies a separate process of evaluating the home and making sure it is a solid purchase. My excitement was being held lightly now, because if I was taught anything by that last minute offer coming in it was that nothing is a sure thing until we have the keys in our hands.
So we have moved forward with inspections, appraisals, requests for repairs, etc. Each and every step has been incredibly smooth. I've heard absolute horror stories about house buying! But we've been checking off the boxes on our to-do list seamlessly.
The Final Days
We are 22 days from closing! We have finished most of the steps needed in the entire transaction. I'm absolutely in awe of how God has been divinely involved in the most minute details. I say this with complete humility, but a very clear example of His working in such small details was through our interest rate. When we made our final offer to the sellers we had to increase our offer a bit, which moved our monthly mortgage higher than we wanted. We went ahead trusting this was what God wanted. Weeks later when we signed the mortgage documents (so much signing!) we ended up with an incredibly low interest rate that moved our mortgage payment back to where we had been before we increased our final offer. I mean, only God can do something like that!
I wanted so much for Him to direct us and be apart of finding our home. He has provided the right people to guide us, answered some of our deepest needs and prayers, and has confirmed to us over and over throughout this process that this indeed is our new home. I cannot begin to express the excitement and peace we have moving forward! I look at this entire journey and can only see God all over it!
Almost Home
Finding a home has reminded me of my eternal home with Christ. While we've been busy searching for our physical home to raise our family, I'm reminded that I long for my permanent home someday apart from this Earth. I've spent a lot of time searching for a home, missing toys, lost Cheerios, new friendships. And the list goes on. But one thing I will never have to search for is my eternal home when this life is over. I've found Jesus Christ and His love for me. I've found His sacrifice and redemption through the cross so that I may spend my eternity with Him in a perfect home in Heaven. I've found a deep and soul-quenching relationship with my God that proves to be steadfast no matter life's circumstances. I'm no longer a nomad with no place to call home but a child of God who's Kingdom is my inheritance. Dear friend, where will your eternal home be?
"Ask and it will be given to you;seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:7-8
