It's been a crazy few months and I thought it might be good to share some of what has been going on. I think most of you know the surface-level things but maybe it will help someone to read the whole story.
Last fall, I started feeling a push to look for a house. We looked into it. We had no credit (literally a credit score of 0 because we had paid off all our debt when we sold our house in 2015 and had stayed out of debt since then) so our options were limited. Our lender suggested getting a credit card, using it a little bit and paying it off, and waiting. While we were in the process of looking at homes and figuring out the credit stuff, our landlords approached us, asking what our plan was and whether we would be willing to keep renting for another 1.5-2 years while they served a mission, in exchange for lowering the rent a bit. We prayed, felt good about it, said yes, put away our moving plans and moved forward with living in Linden.
This summer I started feeling that same push again, to look for a house. I didn't know why, and it didn't make sense to me, so I looked around a bit, idly, but didn't really take it seriously because 1. we had already made a deal with our landlords, 2. we had a little money saved up but not enough for a down payment on a house, and 3. John didn't make enough at his job to afford any kind of house that would work for our family of 8. It really didn't seem like a good time to buy a house.
But, the feeling persisted. It got stronger. I started losing sleep over it (which is what happens when God is trying to tell me something and I'm missing His point). After I stopped being able to sleep I talked to John and said, "We need to pray about this seriously because I feel so strongly about it and I can't keep losing sleep over it!" So we prayed about it, and felt that we should move forward.
THIS WAS JUNE.
I talked to the same lender, updated him about our progress, and asked what our options were. He checked our credit (and we actually had some, woot!), asked about our job situation (John was working at the same place as before, and I was going to be working for Prenda School as a Guide but was not during the summer), basically said he couldn't count my income at all since I would be an independent contractor and said we couldn't afford any of the houses we wanted, save up and come back later. But the feeling persisted. So we kept asking, looking, trying to figure out how to do what we were feeling prompted to do when we had no idea how we were going to do it. I seriously felt like a little kid taking a piggy bank to an auto dealership and asking to buy a car--like, of course we can't buy a house. But we were supposed to buy a house, we were sure of that, so we kept looking for any way to make it possible.
The lender mentioned casually that if I could be hired on as a salaried employee then we wouldn't have to wait as long to buy a home (2 months of pay stubs instead of the 2 years of tax returns that are required of an independent contractor). So I swallowed my pride and asked for a job. And I got one. Working 15 hours a week, from home, doing odds and ends, whatever the rest of the team didn't have time to do. And I LOVE it, truly. It has stretched me in ways I haven't been stretched since college. And I am so grateful that I get to do this job that I love and still be home with my kids. I never planned to do it, but it was the only way we could buy a house, and so here I am.
So all this time we were looking at houses. I felt like we should look in Snowflake, so we focused our search there, and looked at everything there a million times. I finally found a house I loved and felt good about, and it was so nice! So much nicer than I ever thought we could buy - we don't buy nice houses, we buy fixer-uppers and make them nice, that's just how it works, right? Then it went under contract. But there was a contingency, so we still had a chance. We went to look at it, and THAT DAY the contingency was resolved and it was no longer available. WHAT?!? Okay, have faith, God has moved so many mountains already, this is going to work out.
We kept looking, but my heart was set on that cute little blue house across from the park in Snowflake. And nothing else was better, or even close to as good. I felt strongly that we were not to settle, that something would come along in time or the blue house would work out. But oh, that was nerve-wracking. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. And all the time I was working and we were saving, making progress, talking to our landlords (the hardest part of the whole thing), praying, praying, crying, stressing out, praying some more.
THE VERY DAY we were cleared to make an offer, John felt we would find something. He had said at the beginning that he felt we would end up in Shumway, closer to his work. Well, that day I looked at houses again. And looked at EVERYTHING that could possibly work. And opened our search up to a bigger area. And THERE IT WAS. We had an appointment to go look at other houses the next evening already and we added an appointment to see that one and I knew before we went to see it that it was the house. In Shumway. A beautiful home.
I have always been (relatively) poor, and John and I have always been (relatively and sometimes not even relatively, just utterly) poor. I have always had a bit of a complex, I think. Like I wasn't as good as some people, or as deserving of nice things. I don't know why that is but that's how it was. And so we found this beautiful house, and felt strongly that it was what God wanted for us, and I was astounded. I prayed, and asked him, "Why me? Who am I to have such great blessings?" and He answered my prayer loud and clear, "You are MY DAUGHTER."
I don't know why things work out how they do, I know there are many others just as deserving as we are, or more so, but I believe that God has a work for us to do in Shumway, and this house is part of His plan for us. So I will take His word for it, and do my best to use His gifts to me to bless others as we have truly been so blessed.
NOW IT IS SEPTEMBER.
We are getting ready to close next week. I am still working for Prenda and also plan to open a Microschool in the beginning of October (I never planned on doing both at the same time, but that's another answer to prayer, so here we go - also, working mom tips appreciated, I don't know how to do this!). We found a house that was better than I could ever have imagined. From first looking at houses this summer and thinking maybe we should by a house, to our move-in day next week, will be less than 3 months total. It has been a crazy ride. I told John I feel like we've been on the Harry Potter Knight bus, when it careens through the streets madly and then stops abruptly and then starts speeding on again. That is what this experience has felt like. I've learned that God's timing doesn't always mean waiting, sometimes it means NOW. And I have learned that He is no respecter of persons, we are all His children and He wants good things for all of us, we just have to trust Him enough to hold on in the bad times and in the good, and He is faithful - He will not leave us alone, He will guide us in the path that is right for us if we listen and if we trust Him. I am grateful to know that, it means everything to me.
The end. And a new beginning.
Love you all. Thanks for reading my novel.:)
PS - I didn't take that picture, I stole it from the Zillow listing. But it is the house we are buying.
