House Update

Some people call it coincidence, others may call it karma, and still others may call it "everything happens for a reason". I call it God's Perfect Plan. I know I tend to skirt around my faith and beliefs on our blog-I do it for reasons that I am ashamed of and that is something I will challenge myself in overcoming. But in this situation, I feel I have to share what is happening and why I believe (know) it is happening.

Two weeks ago, the day before ultra sound day actually, we had news from our mortgage lender that the underwriters had given us a contingent approval for a mortgage. There were a few small things on the list we needed to provide, not a big deal. Then we came to the last bullet point on the list; turns out we weren't going to be approved for a mortgage-thanks to our condo. We've spent the past two weeks waiting on our "trusty" banker man who was trying to convince his underwriters to make an exception for our case. In the mean time, Adrien was also communicating with another lending company/banker who had also given us a pre-approval. This man kept telling Adrien he was talking with his underwriters and waiting to hear back from them. After a week of this waiting and feeling neglected, we started discussing our own choice of just moving on, finding a rental house, and trying again to buy in a year. Last Saturday as we were driving home from somewhere discussing our options I was silently praying to my Heavenly Father for direction and answers. I felt cheated-how could He close all these doors we felt He had opened for us to buy this house? I was silently pleading with God to just tell me what we were supposed to do! (Side note-I've been attending a women's book study at church for the past few years. The book we are currently reading is called Listening for God. I am learning that when I spend time reading my Bible and praying and being silent, God will speak to me in a way that is audible somewhere inside me. I do believe this to be true and I am learning how to listen for Him.) As I was pleading and praying I heard God's voice clearly say to me "JUST WAIT". That's it God? Just wait? Wait for what? How long? Why?????? I shared this with Adrien and told him I really felt that we were being told to wait. I suggested we wait one more week to hear back from banker #2 before we signed any lease for a rental home. Again, this was last Saturday, April 14th. On Friday, April 20th, Adrien had a meeting with Banker #2. (His name is Dave-that will make this much easier to tell.) Dave told Adrien that his company WILL approve us for a mortgage if we can prove a few things regarding when we rented our condo and where we've been living since. He then explained something to Adrien that answered all my questions about God taking 'our house' away. The people who own that house have not lived there for some time. This has caused them to lose all property tax exemptions. Forgive me because I do not know all the correct terminology but the bottom line is this. New tax something or other just came out and their property taxes have gone up a monstrous amount for that house. If we had closed last week or this as we were originally planning, in two months time our mortgage payment would've increased $450 dollars A MONTH to pay the property taxes. THANK YOU GOD! He saved us from ending up in a home we WOULD NOT have been able to afford. His plan is PERFECT even when we don't see it. Sometimes it can take months or even years for us to see what His plan was; sometimes we may never see the outcome or the reason for why God allows and makes things happen the way they do. In this case we've been given the closure for this situation. We do not get to buy the house we thought was ours BUT we do get to keep looking and find something else. There is a house out there that has been hand picked by God for our family and I can't wait to find it!

I'll be sure to keep you posted as our house hunt continues. We are excited with the knowledge that we will be able to buy a home to call our own rather than have to find a rental home, live in it for a year, and then move again. Thank you Lord!