Every Good and Perfect Gift (Part Two)

As soon as we had a settlement date (only a month away), we started looking for a place to rent. Our goal was as cheap as possible! Renting is more expensive than I thought! We knew we needed three bedrooms to fit the six of us. Beyond that, we would take whatever was available for the best price. We wanted to be as close as possible to where we're building, but it's a small town and didn't have anything available, so we figured we'd be at least 15 minutes away. We would have loved to rent a house out in the country, but nothing was available in our price range, so we knew it'd have to be an apartment or townhouse. It was going to be a bit of an adventure, we knew. We're country folk. Love peace and quiet, outdoor space. We're not used to having close neighbors, but we were preparing ourselves for that likelihood. Several online requests weren't even answered. But finally we got ahold of some people. We visited a couple of townhouses. One smelled terrible and had bedrooms that could not physically fit two beds in them, so we crossed that off our list. One seemed pretty nice. It was still quite small, but the rooms could fit two beds, and it had some amenities we could use (gym, pool, etc) so we wouldn't be stuck inside all the time. And it smelled nice. :) It was about 15 minutes from where we're planning to build, so it was doable. I'd been preparing myself for a change in living habits so a year in close quarters wouldn't do us in. I was ready to send the application that night! But Heath told me to at least think it over for a day before rushing into it. Smart guy, that husband of mine! I lay in bed that night thinking of all kinds of issues....our couch won't fit in that living room! There's no place to put the piano! There's no storage of any kind! Where will the kids keep their bikes?! Where will Heath keep his tools that he needs for work?! But, again, I tried to think of it as an adventure and a challenge that I was ready to accept.

The next morning I was browsing through Trulia for new rentals. A brand new one had been listed that morning. It was the same price as the apartments and townhouses we'd been looking at. But it was a big, old farmhouse! And, it was about two miles from where we're building!! I immediately sent a request for information, and the rental agent responded quickly and said we could see it that afternoon. When we got there, it blew me away! I know 100+-years-old and a bit run down isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I loved it! It's one of those old houses with interesting “secret” passageways and a confusing layout. I imagine the people who have lived there over the past century and all the memories made in that house. What was it like before the gas station and doctor's office and restaurant were added next door? Who lived there, and where are they now? It's fascinating!

Practically speaking, it's also a good fit. It has two large living rooms and an enclosed porch, so we'll have plenty of room for tools, piano, storage, whatever. It has four bedrooms, and it has the great outdoors! There's a tiny old kitchen, which is fine since I hate to cook. The only challenge will be having only one full bathroom. Oh, and the fact that old houses aren't very good at keeping out cold, heat, and creepy things. But I did want an adventure. :)

I feel that this house is a perfect fit for our family, in its size, its location, and its character. And it's not something you see a lot of! So again, I'm reminded that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights.” Thank you Lord for your good gifts!

Every Good and Perfect Gift (Part One)

God's timing. God's timing. We hear this phrase so often, but many times I wonder why God's timing so often doesn't make sense to us.

Ten years ago, Heath and I bought a piece of land to build our next house on. This wasn't because we were rich and needed a dream home or were discontent with our current house. I loved our house! Heath had built it with his own hands, and it is a beautiful house that meets our needs and is in an area we like. No, we didn't NEED to build a home. But we wanted to build again, with the ultimate goal being to eventually have no mortgage. Since Heath does the work himself, we automatically have a ton of equity in our home because of all the costs saved by doing the work himself. He rebuilt our first home; it sold easily and gave us profit to build again. So we figured, build and sell, build and sell, and soon be debt free!

So, using the equity in our current home, we bought the land. That was 2008. At the time, we had just completed our home study for our first adoption, and moving would require redoing (and re-paying-for) a lot of that process. So we thought,”Let's finish the adoption, get Tabitha home and settled, and then we'll sell our house and start building.” Reminder, that was 2008.

Little known to us, we had bought the land at just the wrong time. The housing market crashed just after our purchase. Our house lost about a third of its value. Of course, we had bought the land counting on the sale of our house to pay the land off, and even leave a good portion of what we needed for building costs. Instead, we were faced with our house being worth significantly less than what we owed on it. Not to mention, we were now paying our regular mortgage, plus a second payment for the home equity loan we used to buy the land. Not a good place to be. Our plan to get out of debt (a wonderful goal and good Biblical principle) had become increased debt with no way out.

When I think back to that time, I realize we did make one mistake. Well, two. One was we didn't know anything about the market economy. Some people knew a crash was likely, but we didn't do any research about that kind of stuff. (Lesson learned: sell first, buy second. Even if it's inconvenient, it would have saved us a lot of heartache!) The more important lesson learned was not to forget to pray! Things were selling fast at that time, and this land looked perfect for us, and we jumped on it! We didn't pray about it, we didn't seek counsel, we just did it. Ten years later . . . lesson learned.

Tabitha was adopted in 2009. After a year or so, we were ready to get started, and we put our house up for sale. Unlike our first house, which sold in two days and we had our choice of two offers, nothing happened this time! We were already listing it well below where we had hoped to sell, and we got not a single offer. It was shocking. And a bit terrifying. This wasn't our plan. What were we supposed to do now?!

After several months, we took our house off the market and decided to wait for the economy to improve. Our second adoption was in 2011. After Rayanna was settled in, we tried again. And again. And again. I've lost the exact count, but I believe we've had the house on the market five times, for about six months each time. If you recall, we have four children, we homeschool, I taught piano lessons here at home, and Heath has many not-so-neat projects going on. We use our house. Every inch of it. All the time. So, keeping a house ready for showings at a moment's notice is virtually impossible! Yet, for months at a time, over the course of the last eight years, we tried. Not the most fun thing I've ever done.

We lowered the price with each attempt, had many showings, but never got an offer. We got to the point where getting out of our mess was more important than building, so we tried to sell the land as well. It didn't go anywhere either. Meanwhile, we still had to pay taxes and interest on it. I don't know how many times I apologized to God for not seeking His wisdom before buying. How many times I begged Him to rescue us from this mess! Even if we had to live in a tiny, run-down apartment for the rest of our lives, I just wanted out of this debt! But nothing happened, and no writing in the sky told us what we should do. So we just pressed on. Tried again. Got over the disappointment. Tried again . . . For the past eight years.

Last fall we were ready to try again. There were some things we needed to fix, so by the time we were ready it was nearly spring. Enter the well problems. Our well was drilled in the 1950's, and it'd been a trusty friend for as long as we'd lived here. But over the past couple years, there were occasional problems. If we had a drought, there would be times where it would go dry for a few hours. It only happened a few times, nothing we couldn't live with. But this past winter, it started running dry more frequently. Every couple of months, then every few weeks, then multiple times a week. We realized we'd have to have it fixed. Fortunately, we were able to have an excellent new well drilled for less cost than we anticipated. That was a pleasant surprise!

Finally, we were ready to put the house on the market. We got it all fixed up and got everything picture perfect so the photographer could do the photo shoot. (That beautiful state of affairs lasted a couple hours.) We were preparing for a Wednesday listing day, so Tuesday we recleaned everything and made it picture perfect again. I braced myself for another round of months of stress—trying to keep it perfect looking, having our school day interrupted for showings, people in and out all the time—and to my cynical mind, probably all for nothing. The house went on the market on Wednesday (for the same price we had listed it a year before). We had five showings the first day! The first people to come through made a full-price offer on Thursday. We signed the contract on Friday. Settlement was scheduled for one month later. WHAT?!?!

We did nothing different than before. The market has improved a bit, but to go from no offers to full-price is a bit astonishing! To go from months of nothing, to the first people on the first day wanting to buy it for full price?! That doesn't seem coincidental to me. The only explanation I can think of is that, for some reason unknown to us, THIS was God's timing. I don't know why all those attempts over the past eight years weren't His plan. That certainly would have made a lot more sense if you ask me! But for some reason, this was it. I don't know if there will ever be a big “proof” of this. Some miracle that only could have happened if we moved now. But, even if it's nothing awe-inspiring to other people, I know that over the past decade God has increased my trust in Him, increased my contentment, taught me that no house on this earth is my forever home, and reminded me that—no matter the topic—God is the one in control, not me.

James 1:17 says that every good and perfect gift is from God. This sale is one of those gifts, and I am so thankful that God knows how to give good gifts, and knows the perfect time in which to give them.