One of the challenges we have been facing for the past two years is trying to sell our house. We put it on the market just as the housing bubble burst, and because our area hasn't been as badly impacted we were still hopeful that we'd be able to sell. Well, God had other plans... We found a wonderful house that was owned by a single mother (who is a Christian) and made an offer on it pending the sale of our home. After 4 months, the offer expired because we hadn't had an offer... but in the meantime, her husband had become a believer, and they were remarried one year ago. How great is that? Then, we still didn't sell and decided to take it off of the market in the spring after having it listed for a year and a half. We just needed a break from all of the showings (trying to keep a house immaculate with 5 small children is impossible while trying to homeschool, nursing a baby, cook, shop, etc...). Then, our neighbor (who was divorced and had a handicapped son who died) who we have been trying to show Christ's love to for the past 61/2 years became a believer one day when he asked Nate to come over and pray with him before he had to have surgery. More answers to prayer that couldn't have happened had we moved away.
So, a few months ago, amidst a few more major decisions that we needed to make, we prayed one night for wisdom as we needed to figure out whether to list the house or not before the holidays... or wait until the new year. We were awakened the next day by the same woman from the original house we had fallen in love with... at our door at 7:45 am! She said that she and her husband had decided to sell the house, as they were fixing up a house on acreage that he had bought while single and it was too much to keep up with both properties. She said it would be several months before they were ready to sell, but that she wanted to let us know first. Amazing! So we listed the house right away amidst my concerns that the dining room wasn't finished yet, amongst other details.
Now, I've always been the optimist in our relationship, and Nate has always been able to compose a 20 page thesis on why something won't work. :) I've seen the way that God has provided so many times in the past, but I shamefully admit that I was lacking in faith this time- there just seemed to be so many tumultuous things going on in our lives at the time that I was afraid to have hope. I didn't want to be hurt by something else going wrong. So when Nate told me that he was praying that we would only have to show the house once and that it wouldn't be until the finishing work was done, I laughed. Not disrespectfully, but one of those "Sarah and the angels" kind of laughs. Well, 6 weeks went by without a single showing. Nada. Zip. As much as I didn't want to have any hope, I still had hoped we'd have a least a couple showings. Despair set in. Nate cheerfully said "Just wait, it will happen..." We finished all the little details- a new microwave, getting the yard redone, organizing the garage, switching out the bedrooms, painting Stephen's room and decorating it, setting up our bedroom downstairs, and finishing up the dining room. We held an open house almost three weeks ago, and no one came. Our realtor was just packing up her things when our neighbors (who rent) walked over and asked to see it. At first, they said "Oh, this is really cute!" and "This microwave is way bigger than mine!" Then they went down to the basement and said "Wow, we had no idea it was like this- this is so much extra living space" and then they went out to the workshop area... and they said they were sold. They plan on converting it to a big master bedroom (one of the ideas we had if we were going to stay). They asked to walk through it again, and were talking about other things they would do. They told our realtor they needed to talk to their lender and realtor, and she'd be hearing from them soon. Apparently, they've been looking at houses over $40,000 more than ours, and haven't been happy with anything they've seen. They know they love this neighborhood (which was why we bought this house), and they can do most of the improvements themselves because they have the extra time and money. I spoke to her about it a few days later, and she said it may take them a few weeks to a month to make the offer because they need to have a few financial details in place, but as soon as those happen (which is dependent upon when he gets his educational repayment stipend check from work), they are going to be making an offer! They were pre-approved for a lot more, so getting a loan isn't the issue- they just want to make sure they have the lowest rate they can and need to take care of one thing on his credit. She is savvy to realty because she was a realtor in the Chicago suburbs... and I just think it's so much fun that they see the potential in our little house. She kept talking about what a good house it is. She told me in great detail what they plan on doing to it, down to the color of stonework for the entryway and other little details. Most of the things they want to do were things that we had planned on doing if we had to stay here, but it became very evident that Nate's schedule doesn't allow for that kind of work- it took us a whole year just to refinish the dining room floor and do the trimwork! Imagine how long a major construction project would take!!! It will be neat to see it once it's done. Her boys (who are our children's ages) have been going around telling everyone that they are moving into our house next year. So, barring some strange turn of events, it looks like we have a buyer, and the owner of the house we want to buy was relieved to hear that it wouldn't happen until after New Year's because they haven't been able to finish the other house yet... so it will work out for everyone! So please pray for everything to go smoothly and for me to remain calm in the chaos of trying to pack a house with everyone needing me every 30 seconds! :)
P.S. Even if this doesn't work, we'll be fine. I know there's a few pessimists and nonbelievers out there that will worry about us once they read this. :) The events leading up to this have made it very clear that God wanted each of these things to happen for a reason (as is always the case!), so His timing is perfect and we'll continue to wait on Him and not despair. The old Colleen is back!!! :)
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