The House that Built Me

God's timing and plan is always better and often different from our own.

I shared this verse on here about three weeks ago.

Isaiah 55:8-9 "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are you ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."

Last week on Wednesday I received a phone call from a woman from our church. She told me that she has a girl who helps clean her house who was telling her of a house that the girl's father wants to rent out. It is a big farmhouse with a yard. She was wondering if we would be interested. As we got to talking, it turned out that it was the same house that my family and I lived in for about 6 years when we first moved to this area. But, the owner wanted someone in the house in the next 2-4 weeks. That sounded really quick and we weren't planning on renting, but it was something I definitely wanted to look into.

I have many many fond memories of living in that home, and I'm sure my sisters and brother would say the same. Maybe you're familiar with the Miranda Lambert song, "The House That Built Me". <- (Click on the title for a YouTube link.) Now obviously, the house didn't build me, but this video reminds me of how it would feel to walk through my childhood home.

After much discussion between Trent and I and several conversations with the owner, we decided to go and look at the house on Saturday (3 days after hearing about it). I was a little nervous because I knew I would be going into it with "adult eyes". Some things were better than I remembered (the owner had recently taken down all the old outside of the building, right down to the logs, and put up insulation and siding and new windows, also some new carpet inside). Some things were worse than I remembered (the bathrooms - - -YIKES!) Trent compares the bathrooms to the one you would stop at at a gas station along the highway (we're not talking Sheetz, people, we're talking hole-in-the-wall, get a key from behind the counter, bathroom). Some were exactly the same (my "baby" brother's room still painted with little blue race-cars!)

So, after much prayer, discussion, financial calculators, we decided that we would like to rent the house. There is the potential to buy the house in the future.

In some ways the house is a downgrade from where we are now. Our city house is neat and tidy and updated. The country house has no dishwasher (help me!)!! But, the country house has a yard!! and trees!! and it's big!!

Of course, I'm beyond excited because I've always loved the house. But beyond that, it has 5 bedrooms!! Which means we easily have more space for more children. And it just so happens that our foster-care orientation is in March, which will give us almost 2 full months to be moved in and settled by the time we will be certified to take in more children. Yes, you read that correctly. Two months. Which means our move-in date is February 1st. Can you say "crazy"?

We decided it would make the most sense to keep our city house and rent it out. We still need to find a tenant for our house, but we are listing with a very capable friend of ours, who we trust to find someone good for us and good for the house.

Can you believe God's timing? This is not something I would have ever imagined, yet God perfectly orchestrated it. I suppose that is why the Bible tells us not to worry. Can you imagine the amount of time and energy I would have saved if I had never spent a single moment worrying about it?

Some verses:

Mark 11:22 "Have faith in God."

Hebrews 11:6 "Without faith it is impossible to please Him."

Matthew 19:26 "With God all things are possible."

p.s. I'll post pictures of the house when I can, but I may fall off the face of the earth for the next few weeks!

Something Unexpected

A couple of posts ago I had talked about having faith that God will work out all the details of our housing and moving needs. In some ways I think I may have been trying to prepare myself to wait a lot longer than I would want. However, an interesting option has recently come up, and the connections that were made seem to be just too coincidental to not be God ordained. However, we're still stuck on our end of needing to sell our house (really, really quickly) or finding a trustworthy person to rent it. To me (and especially my husband-planner-thinker), this would seem like it's too quick, but I know that God is in control, and if He wants us to move to a certain place at a certain time, He will work out.

Will you say a quick prayer for us?