Moving On…

A year ago my wife and I were driving home from going to the grocery store and noticed a home for sale in our neighborhood. We thought it was really cute, and could be everything we wanted, so I called a realtor friend of ours and asked if he could show me the house.

The house was a dud; it was in rough shape and needed tons of updates. But it made us realize we wanted a house, so we got our house ready, put it on the market, and waited.

For a year.

Through that process there were so many times I asked God to sell our house, and it didn’t happen. I begged and pleaded with God to bring us a buyer, or make it clear that we were supposed to stay. It was such a frustrating emotional time, wanting to move on, but not being able to. So much so in fact, that we stopped looking at houses that were for sale altogether, because without a contract on our home, moving wasn’t a reality.

I didn’t understand why we couldn’t sell our house, until now.

About 3 weeks ago, we signed the contract to sell our house. For 3k less than what my “bottom line” was for the last year. A week after that we were out and about looking at homes. We had been watching one specific home for the last year as it’s price dropped. We didn’t even know it was now in our price range until about a week previous to house hunting. We looked at 6 houses the first day, and none of them seriously compared to Locksley (the house we wanted). So we put an offer on the house the next day.

The house had been on the market for 405 days at the time of the offer, and what do you know, there was another offer on the table. So, we offered our best, and after days of deliberation from the seller, we got the contract. We close on the new house on June 14th.

405 days. That’s a little longer than how long we waited to sell our house, how long we wanted a buyer so that we could find another house to fit our growing family. I don’t think it’s coincidence. God knew how long we needed to wait to get the house that was perfect for us, the house that we dreamed of and never thought would be a reality. We had no idea, and we would’ve been just as happy to make mud pies in the slums [C.S. Lewis reference, google it], but He had something better, more than we could have imagined in store.

Needless to say, we’re super excited about having a new home. We’re even more excited to be buying a beautiful house where all our rooms are together on the second floor, where our kids can play safely in the fenced in back yard, and where my wife can see them play from the kitchen (she has always wanted a kitchen window that looked over the back yard so she could keep an eye on the kids).

But more than excited, we feel overwhelmed with blessing. I feel undeserving of the great house that we’re getting, undeserving of the life we have. I’ve prayed continually that God will help me to hold these things loosely and be ready to give them up for his cause at a moment’s notice. I ask Him to teach me and help me to steward what he’s given me, and to always let it be used for his kingdom.

So without further ado, I present to you, Our new house: