The Journey Home

When God wants something to happen, His ways aren't thwarted! We have some great news to share with you. We put down an offer on a house, and they have accepted our offer! FINALLY!!! We are happy, but mostly just relieved now that this house process is over. :) It was a journey to get home, and as always, it comes with a God story!!! It's a long read, but worth it....

We had looked at quite a few houses. And the Lord said no, for one reason or another, to seven properties we looked at. Our prayer has always been to move forward in faith, and if this wasn't the house for us, God would close the door. Dear friends, as hard as it was, God remains faithful, and true.

After our thorough search, we decided that our dream house (the newer house, had a big yard, backs to trees) was not in this area at the price we wanted to pay--one in which we wouldn't be house poor. There were very nice houses at the max of our budget, but we generally had to compete against many other offers, and didn't have the room to counter. Meanwhile, the houses have appreciated by $50,000 and the townhouses only $20,000 and the interest rates were starting to creep up. We had several choices:

1. Wait.To stay put, refinance, and save up for the dream house in five years.
2. Sacrifice. Buy a single family dream home now while the rates were low enough, but we couldn't vacation, eat out, or save for a new car.
3. Enjoy. Buy a home that's within our price range, and position ourselves in five years if we wanted to go for the dream home, we could.

We chose the last option!

So last Friday, we narrowed it down to four properties. They were all GREAT houses, but again, they all had their trade offs:

• Great house, OK lot.
• OK house, Great lot.
• OK house, OK lot.
• Great house, No lot. Great price. (Total reduction $89,000!)
  

Truly, we couldn't decide. In His perfect timing, we had dinner with a friend of ours who we respect, and he said something at dinner that helped confirm our decision. He said you know 'no house is worth any stress'. In his case, he worked quite a bit to pay for his house and the price he had to pay was time with his family. It seemed easy. Patrick decided that the best house was one in which we live more financially free, so we chose the house previously blogged "Enormous", which had been reduced $20,000 since we last saw it. I, of course, was elated because it is a gorgeous townhome in a great community, Landsdowne, with 0ver 4600 square feet, and has $75K worth of upgrades.

Just when we get ready to put the offer down, the plot thickens. We see another listing that same morning that we couldn't believe --a new house in Ashburn, with a yard, that backs to trees and get this - also backs to water! It's our 100%. It is at the highest end of our budget (of course!) so we are tempted, and we go to make an offer, and already --two other offers are on it. Again, we sit back and continue to pray specifically that if God doesn't want us to have this house, that he would close the door. Well, that very afternoon, we put a call into our lender who says to us, 'did you know this week the interest rates have gone up again, the largest increase in six months?' All of a sudden, the numbers changed for us and already the stretched price tag with the increased interest rates, and now PMI, was taking us beyond our limit. We had to choose our options to sacrifice or enjoy. And did we really mean it when we wanted to honor God with His money? Sadly, we withdrew our offer. That was painful.

It gets worse.

In that 24 hour period, the townhouse that we already decided we wanted, now goes under contract!! Agggghhh!

But wait, it's not a done deal. Our realtor tells us that their contract is contingent upon the sale of their home, so there's a kickout! If we put in an offer that's not contingent, than they have 48 hours to lift their contingency. This is where I thank God for my husband's credit and debt to income ratio, because even in this market where banks are less giving, we were able to qualify for a loan for two mortgages. We put down our offer and we waited...and waited...and waited...two days could not have stretched any longer! Finally, a call comes and we're told the other party backed out, and that the house is ours. Our dream-e house is ours! I am Elated, Excited, and now...at Ease!

You know so many times people say that if the Lord has it for you, it will be easy and peaceful. And I have always struggled with that line of thinking because it has never been true in my life. Every good gift from above has always come.... with me on my knees, waiting, wrestling, trusting, and ultimately praising no matter the outcome. He was there from the start, and if we hadn't gone through what we went through, I surely wouldn't know that it was only from Him!

But wait, the deal is still not yet done. Anything could fall through. And if we've learned anything in this process - it's that God's ways aren't thwarted---if He has a house for you, He will lead you to it. We're still trusting.