Home Sweet Home, Part I

We have been in our new home for just over two months now.  Just tonight, Dan commented, "You know, I'm kind of surprised, but this house really DOES feel like home already."  Well, that's good!  That is one of my main goals as a homemaker - to make this house feel like a home, a haven, for my husband.  Phew!  =)

In front of our old house, on the day we moved

The journey that God took us on to get here has been so special.  We lived for ten and a half years in a cozy little home in the next town over.  We brought all of our babies home there, and loved that home.  We could have lived there forever if the Lord would have wanted us to, but sometime in June, we got to talking about how the Lord has been graciously blessing our business, and about the possibility of moving to something bigger.  Our main desires for having a bigger place are to use it for the Lord and to bless others.  We looked online at homes in the area for several weeks, knowing certain criteria we had in mind, but not feeling any rush to do anything until the right house came up.  Well, in the middle of July...the right house came up!  We loved the location, square footage, the floor plan, and it was well in our price range. A few days after it went on the market, we went to go see it.  We loved it.  We hurriedly started the loan application process.  Bad news.  We were six months shy of owning our business for the 'magic number' of two years that they like to see.  It would make getting a loan pretty hard.  We were hoping that the fact that is had been a family-run successful business for 30 years prior would make a difference.  But we were ready to give the house back to God, knowing that He must have something even better in store for us if that house wasn't the one.  

We couldn't make an offer on the house until our loan application was approved.  It was several looooong days of assuming that SOMEbody else must be making an offer on our beautiful house.  Then we got the surprising news that our loan application would be accepted!  Alright!  And amazingly, no one else had made an offer yet on the house. So we made an offer, and they accepted it!  On one condition: we had to get our 2012 tax returns done by Monday of the following week.  (The ONE year we ask for an extension!!)  Dan quickly called his accountant.  (I think it was a Wednesday.)  "Can you get these done, pronto?"  "I think so," was his reply.  Great!  Then we hear from him a few days later.  "Dan, there is no way I can get these done by Monday."  Oh.  That meant our offer was off the table.  That meant the house would go back on the market while our taxes were getting done.  Nail biter! As you can see, it was quite the emotional roller coaster from the get-go!  But through it all, it was a privilege to trust the Lord, knowing that He had our best interests in mind and that His plan was perfect - whatever that was.  I was driving in the car one day during this waiting period and this beautiful song sung by Keith and Kristyn Getty starting playing that became so special to me during this time.  It's called "The Perfect Wisdom of Our God" and the last line of this verse in particular played over and over in my mind and on my lips in the coming days.

Oh grant me wisdom from above,

To pray for peace and cling to love,

And teach my humbly to receive

The sun and rain of your sovereignty.

Each strand of sorrow has a place

Within this tapestry of grace;

So through the trials I choose to say:

"Your perfect will in your perfect way."

Your perfect will in your perfect way.  God's ways are so beyond our ways.  We see so dimly, and think we know what is best, when ultimately it's GOD who knows what is best and is always stretching out His hand to graciously teach us, mold us, and bless us.  He is the perfect Father.  And so worthy of our trust.

We prayed a lot.  And had lots of people praying about it.  I think it was less than twenty-four hours after our accountant told us he couldn't get the taxes done that he called Dan back and said - "I got them done!"  Not just "I can start them now!" but "They are DONE."  Wow!!  From there, things progressed pretty much as they normally should.  And save another seven days at the beginning of September of constantly checking with the IRS to see if they had processed our tax returns and ending up having to delay our close date by a week, we ended up with the house key on September 13, seventeen years to the day of Dan's and my first date. =)

I know this is a little situation compared to what some of you are going through.  And I don't mean to say that as long as you trust God and pray a lot, only good things will happen to you.  That's not what the Bible says.  God uses both the good and the bad to mold us and shape us. (Gen. 50:20, Heb. 12:7-11)  If God had wanted us to live in our little house for another year, or ten years, we would have done it if that was what was best for us.  But God does love it when His children pray to Him and for reasons only HE knows, God saw fit to give us yet another blessing that we don't deserve.  We are humbly honored to use it as much as we can for His glory.

We have nothing to give
That didn't first come from Your hands
We have nothing to offer You
Which You did not provide
Every good, perfect gift comes from
Your kind and gracious heart
And all we do is give back to You
What always has been Yours 

(Matt Redman, "Breathing The Breath")

More to come in my next post...

Hanging in our new entryway

P.S. If you are looking for a an amazing realtor in our area, let us know and we can hook you up! =)

O grant me wisdom from above,
To pray for peace and cling to love,
And teach me humbly to receive
The sun and rain of Your sovereignty.
Each strand of sorrow has a place
Within this tapestry of grace;
So through the trials I choose to say:
“Your perfect will in Your perfect way.” - See more at: http://www.stuarttownend.co.uk/song/the-perfect-wisdom-of-our-god/#sthash.zgCJvOIn.dpuf