Can You Hear It??

It's the door...

It's swinging open...

Wide open...

Back in April, I posted this. What I didn't post was all that's been happening on that end since then...

We actually didn't say goodbye. Doors were suddenly opened and we made an offer on that beautiful old farm house. The kicker? It was a short sale. Long ago, when I heard the term short sale, I thought that meant the sale moved quickly. Yeah. Not so much. Our offer was approved by the sellers and then headed off to the bank. We were hearing words like expedited. Quickly. Less time than normal...

Two months later, with a lock on an amazing rate that was about to expire, we took the day to pray. Not that we hadn't been praying. We had. We'd been praying for the doors to close if this was not God's best. But, we were down to the wire and really needing to hear from God.

The amazing thing was that, on this day, I was pretty angry at God. We were in the throws of finding out about my brother's cancer. Still thinking he was incurable. I kept wondering where in the world God was. I mean really. I needed God.

Then, I prayed for clarity about the house. Within the hour God answered. I was in the car and the question came barreling into my head, "Why are you doing this? What do you want?" And I was very gently reminded what we said at the very beginning of looking for our dream. We wanted property. A place for the kids to run and play. A place that we could have animals. We didn't care what the house was like. It wasn't about the house.

I realized that the farmhouse was perfect. It was not perfect for us. It was at the top of our price range and we would have had to do WAY too many things to make it what we wanted. I realized that it HAD become about the house. I loved that house. It was beautiful and I would have been very proud to show anyone that house. I called Cory and very humbly told him what I had heard God say. He too, had the same feelings. We pulled our offer and both felt so much peace.

Then there was house #2. More than we wanted to spend so we made an offer based on what we could spend. The door slammed shut on that one...

Then came a conversation that would change our thoughts. A conversation with a mom and a friend that had us looking in another school district. Something we said we would never do. We felt like maybe, just maybe, we hadn't found anything here because here is not where we are supposed to be...

Which brought us to house #3. Old farm house. Five acres. Great house. Great price. Short sale. Yep. Short sale. We had said we'd never touch one again, but in all reality, for what we wanted and for what we had to spend, that's what we were looking at. We made an offer and have had nothing but messes since. Our realtor told us to keep looking since we had no idea how long this short sale would take...

Cory went out of town last weekend. He left Friday and was to come back on Sunday. Saturday morning, I sat down with my coffee and started to browse the listings. Holy cow! A new listing stared me in the face. No pictures. Just the description, price and address. I jumped onto zillow and any other site that might give me a better idea.

I called Cory, "Why do you have to be out of town??" He told me to call our friend and realtor and see if he could show me the house. Thankfully, he so graciously took me that night. Us. Four of my kids. His four kids and my Mom. Little crazy...

But, I loved it. It was just what we wanted. After consulting with Cory, we made an offer that night. The offer was submitted to the bank on Sunday and by Monday evening we were signing the acceptance contract from the bank.


We told the kids last night. Truly. I was not surprised by the reactions. Cole jumped out of his seat in excitement. The little ones could have cared less. Caden started crying. We assured him he would still be able to see his friends. Cole told him that he would love it and he would get new friends too. Caden asked if we could go see it since he was not with us on Saturday. He changed his mind. He's excited now too...


I know that there are still some hurdles. There is the inspection and although we've been pre-approved, I still fear that they'll say, "nope. Sorry." And, of course, there's the tiny little task of finding someone to rent the house we are currently living in. I continue to pray that the doors would close if this isn't God's best. I continue to pray for guidance. I'm thankful for the peace that I have about this new house. This new place. I'm thankful that now all the kids are on board. I know it will be so good for them. I'm so very thankful for all the doors that have closed on our journey and for the one that seems to be swinging wide open. Thank you Lord!!

The view from the front porch