Monday, May 27, 2013

The Power of Prayer

About two years ago, I started praying for God to show us where he wanted us to be. Part of our place includes this dream home that we lovingly and painstakingly poured ourselves into. After a year-long building adventure, we moved into it and made it our home. We brought both of our babies home to it.

I began to question if this really was our forever house like we intended it to be.  When two public educators are paying tuition for their child to attend public school, the whole idea of the dream home quickly changed into more of a nightmare. Something definitely seems wrong with the whole principle of that reality. When I finally resolved that my home is where my family resides and not the roof over our head, I knew I would be okay with letting it go. I made up a real estate flyer couple of years ago with the intention of eventually putting our house on the market. 

I also began to pray that if leaving was what we were supposed to do then it would be obvious and easy. I said, "Lord, just make it easy; easy as in- let someone just come knock on our door wanting to buy our house." You know, just fall into our laps.  That seems easy enough for most, but when your house is so far off the road that no one can see your front door, it puts a whole knew spin on my request- an impossible spin perhaps.

Nothing is impossible when you are trusting in the Almighty God! We had a parent meeting with a teacher at my school concerning some test results for Cam.  In the small talk before the meeting, she mentioned that she had put three of their properties on the market and was looking for a big change.  I jokingly replied, "Well I should have the courage to put our one property on the market if you can just jump in and do all three."  She asked about our house and seemed interested in knowing more details of it.  I told her I would send her my two-year-old flyer.  Upon leaving her classroom, I thought our conversation was nothing more than small talk.

Well, the next day she tracked me down at school wondering why I had not sent the flyer.  Whoa - maybe there was a little more to this than I had originally thought. I promised I would send the flyer that afternoon. As soon as she saw the flyer, she started emailing serious, buyer kinds of questions:  What are your property taxes? What kind of water do you have?  Do you have covenants? What is the size of your lot?  Whoa!  I was a bit taken aback.  I didn't even know all  of the answers to these questions.  The next day, I got more questions and a request to come see the house.  What?  Ok.  I had the weekend to get it show-ready.  I could do that.  Until the request to show was bumped up to afterschool on Friday so they could see it before going out of town.  What? What?  I was reminded by my dear friend, my voice of reason, that this was what I had been praying for.  This small, gentle voice also encouraged me to stop freaking out and just trust.  So - I did.

I welcomed my teaching colleague and her husband into my less-than-show-ready home on a wet, rainy Friday afternoon.  They wanted to come in through the front door -which if you have ever been to our house, very few people actually have ever made the long trek to the front.  This meant they had to hike through the yet-to-be-cut wet spring grass.  They marveled at the porch and its views, looking past the layer of April pollen that coated everything.  And, upon entering, they were all smiles.  Her husband, being a builder, was able to recognize the unique touches we put into the details of our house.  She made the comment, "The flyer doesn't even do it justice!"  I cringed as the pantry door was opened and as we stood among the plethora of storage items in the basement.  As I was focused on the details of my stuff, they were focused on the potential of this property and how it could fit into their lives.

The next day I got a message from her saying how much they appreciated being able to look at it and how much they loved the house and the seclusion.  The message ended with: "I would love for this to work out."    Hmmm.   I still wasn't completely trusting.  I thought, well that was fun to think about for a little while.  But then, on Sunday night as I was putting Maeve to bed, I got another message.  It said, "We want to move forward with the possible purchase of your house!"  (I added in the exclamation mark!)  The message went on to give us an offer.  This is the part that floored me.  Without them knowing anything about the price we needed in order to not be under water in our mortgage, their offer was exactly what Tony and I had just looked at and agreed that we would need.  God was really showing out with this part!  Easy was exactly what I asked for and it was easier than I ever expected - no for sale sign, no realtor, no months and months of keeping a house show ready, no back and forth offers and counteroffers.  Just easy.

So now we wait on them to sell their house, which happens to be a beautiful, historic home on the strip of Madison, GA.  I have no doubt that the right buyer is going to come along for them and this process will continue to be easy for all of us.  In the meantime, we are casually looking at property potential.  We still haven't had the Griswald Christmas tree moment where the light shines down on it and we just "know."  We think about how hard it will be to pack for a move and how bittersweet it will be to leave the only home our children have ever known.    But, we have no reason not to trust Him as he steers both of our lives into the paths he has already chosen.

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