We have been completely and totally blessed to have “kind-of” free housing while living in the church parsonage. When we accepted our ministry job in Saint Louis, the move was so quick, we had just had our first baby, and there was no way we could have looked for a home in that short amount of time with where we were currently at. The church offered the parsonage to us and it has been a complete and total blessing, but we knew it wasn’t our forever home. We didn’t always want to be in the parsonage, but we had no idea how we would ever be able to own a home of our own. I remember telling Chad at times it seemed so impossible to ever dream of being home owners.
Fast forward two years of living in the parsonage and we came across some programs that could help us to buy our first home. We started moving in that direction, with a plan in mind, and door after door kept slamming in our face. It didn’t seem like it was going to work out at all. So we just decided to wait a year and maybe we would be more ready then. Literally a month later everything changed. The church came to us with a proposition of moving out of the Parsonage so that they could move in some new hires, and if we still were interested in moving they would bring it to the finance board and see what they could do. So we said yes, and I started looking at the market again and day after day kept getting so discouraged. There was nothing. When we looked a month ago there were options, but all of those options were not under contract. I was really stressed out by this point about even finding a home. Two weeks pass by and this house pops up on the market a little further south then the town we were originally looking in, but in the same town as my in-laws. I completely fell in love. I called the realtor immediately and since it was late Tuesday night, and we had Church Wednesday, we set up a time to see it on Thursday. Well the church came to us on Wednesday saying everything was approved and I just couldn’t shake the feeling that we needed to go see that house that day. So I called the realtor and we decided to go during Chad’s lunch break.
Can I just say when we saw the house it was even more beautiful than the photos? We were absolutely in LOVE. My husband is a processor, he wanted to bring his parents back the next day, take time to think about it, and make sure he knew what he was doing. So that’s what we left the house thinking…until we were home not even thirty minutes and were told that if we didn’t place an offer by 5pm we would lose the house because there were already two offers put in! So we scrambled around for the next three hours, made some phone calls, and took the leap and put in an offer. It was the craziest most stressful three hours of my life. I was running around like a crazy lady thanking the Lord it was nap time for the kids.
Offer was in and we were told we would know by 8pm or sooner. At 7pm I got a phone call from the realtor saying that we were in a bidding war. We couldn’t go any higher than we already put in for, so she suggested that we write a letter to the sellers thanking them for the opportunity to see their home and talk about how we could see ourselves in it. When she said that I knew exactly what to write. When we went to the house that afternoon Jase was running around the newly fenced back yard and as I was watching him my eyes filled with tears and I thought, “this is what I want. This is what we have been looking for.” I couldn’t get over how happy he was to have a yard to run and play in. So I shared my heart with the sellers, submitted the letter, and waited.
At exactly 8pm I got a text from my realtor asking if we were ready. After minutes…which felt like hours…staring at her little dots typing she exclaimed we got the house! But the God thing is that we weren’t the highest bid! The sellers chose us all over our letter. They wanted us to be the ones to purchase the home that they so well loved, that made us feel incredibly special!
God’s hand was in this entirely! We would have lost the house if we would have waited one more day to see it. The house was on the market less than 24 hours before the offers were put in. We didn’t offer the highest bid and the sellers chose us. I am just so an awe of how God works things out. I never thought this dream was possible, and it’s so crazy how God had it play out. Originally we had our own plan of how we were going to work it out, but that wasn’t the way God had things planned. So He closed the doors until we were on the same page and then they began flying open. How the Lord’s ways are mysterious, but far better than we could imagine.
I am so excited for this new journey with my family and the chance to make this house a home!
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