God's Provision: Our Home Story, Part 3

Part 1
Part 2

We gave house hunting a break while we settled into life with a family of seven, but by October, we were back in the game.  One day in mid-November, Brian took the day off and we went on a morning house hunting blitz.  The night before our trek, I asked several people to pray for us.  I was again dreading the hunting part, and though we had been very private about our search thus far, I wanted support from the Body of Christ before we headed out this time. 

We looked at one house that was okay, another two that were not, and then we walked in House B.  We had been warned that the house was occupied and might be a bit messy, but we were surprised to find it tidy and clean.  It had an open floor plan, large bedrooms, two bathrooms, and it sat on a 2-acre plot of land.  The price was just at the upper end of our price range, but Sharon said we could easily offer less.  We were taking this as God’s yes.   We sat right there in the living room and discussed how to proceed.  We went home for the afternoon, and then met back in the real estate office to sign a contract for an offer on the house. 

What followed was a week of highs and lows.  The seller countered our offer and then we countered her counter.  It seemed as though life revolved around waiting for the telephone to ring.  She countered again and we countered her counter again.  Six days after our original offer, we got word that she accepted.  We told the kids at dinner and we were all so excited we could hardly eat!  It was a Thursday and we were waiting to hear details of when to set up the inspections for the following week, but details never came.  A phone call from Sharon revealed that while the seller verbally accepted our offer, she never signed the contract and now she was having “seller’s jitters.”  We prayed with fervor.  We asked that the Lord’s will be done. 

Thanksgiving Day was a little emotional as we waited to hear.  At our Thanksgiving meal, each person wrote something they were thankful for on a leaf and attached it to the thankful tree.  I wrote “our new home” and prayed that it would be so.  On the following dreary Tuesday, Brian called me in the afternoon.  Sharon had called and told him that not only was the seller not going to sign the contract but she was pulling the house from the market.  The clouds matched my mood and my tears competed with the rain drops.  God was giving us another clear no.

We struggled hard that time.  We wondered why God had taken us so far before saying no.  We wondered why we would find a home that seemed so perfect and yet have it taken away.  We vacillated between anger and disappointment and discouragement.  Yet somehow we were still thankful.  Knowing that we had prayed for God to give us a clear yes or no took the pressure off of us and reminded us that it was all in His hands.  If House B wasn’t the one, there must be something better for us. 

With Christmas upon us, we gave house hunting a long intentional rest.  We needed emotional rest and we were too busy with holiday preparations to spend time searching anyway.  In late January 2011, we geared up again.  Brian was in his seasonal break from work so we had a lot of time to devote to walking through houses.  It seemed like we were doomed to repeat the cycle again.  Online pictures looked great, but in person (in house?) things were in terrible shape.  We walked through homes with broken windows and missing (copper) pipes and leaky roofs.  Though some homes were workable, others were most definitely not and we began to wonder if for now this was God’s clear no to buying a house at all.  Sharon was a bit more optimistic.  One day after a discouraging round of house shopping, she said, “There is a house out there for you somewhere.  We just need to find it.”

 

The Conclusion