Lessons Learned

Wow! I feel like I don't even know where I should start with all this! Life and the move has had some unexpected twists that have left us a little disoriented. So I guess I should start from the beginning. . . . . February.

(Sidenote: This post is EXTREMELY long! I'm using it for a journaling purpose as well. This has been a very BIG trying and testing experience and many of my personal feelings are expressed. This has been quite the spiritual experience. Just thought I would warn you :) Congratulations if you make it to the end!)

THE IMPRESSION:
A few months ago in February I was talking on the phone to our good friend Abe. He had called to get my dad's information. My dad works in the real estate business and he and Donna wanted to put their house up for sale. I have to say I was devastated when he said that. They are our best friends! I didn't want them to move! I asked him why they wanted to move and he said they wanted to be closer to family. I gave him my dad's info and got off the phone with him a few minutes later. I will admit I did start feeling a little sorry for myself - our best friends weren't going to live around the corner anymore! But good for them I remember thinking; Abe will be closer to his work and they will be closer to family. I was sitting in the office chair after I had gotten off the phone and I had an impression that first of all - came out of nowhere and second of all - caught me off guard. This feeling came over me that we too needed to move closer to family. Both of our parents and my siblings live more on the north side of town. All of my extended family lives on the north side too. My first thought was that it would be fun to live closer to family. Then I specifically remember thinking, "Yeah right Heavenly Father, sell our house in this market! That could take years!!" Houses just aren't selling right now!! But again I had the feeling that we needed to move closer to family. If He wanted us to move, He would help our house to sell. I wasn't sure what His time frame for us moving was, but I needed to have faith. After talking about all this with Craig and some more praying we decided that we should do this. A week later I called my dad and had him put our house up for sale . . . .

UP FOR SALE:
We didn't put a sign in the yard. And we really didn't tell people. We didn't want to have to explain and answer a bunch of questions to everyone that we were trying to move, but the market's bad, blah, blah, blah. We just figured we'd put the house up for sale and whatever happened happened and that was the Lord's plan for us. Some of you might be thinking, "How does your house sell without a sign in the yard?" Our home was listed on the MLS - a place on the internet where all realtors look for homes to suit their clients who are looking to buy a house. Nothing happened the first two months. Then we got a call - someone wanted to come take a peek! I was excited! This could be it! I had the house spic and span and . . . they never came by. I was crushed! I remember praying that night and asking Heavenly Father, "Are we really supposed to sell our house? Is this really what you want us to do?" The answer I got was, "Where is your faith?" LESSON LEARNED: It's ok to pray for an increase in faith.

SOLD:
A month later still no one else had called on the home and no one had come to look. It was a Thursday night. My dad called and said he had a buyer for our home. I thought he was joking. No one had come by to look. Why would anyone want to buy a house they hadn't seen? The buyer was from Budapest - yeah, across the world. He wanted the home for an investment property and he wanted to pay cash for the house. He was going to pay our asking price which we were very excited about. We were going to come out a little ahead on our home!! When we heard that this guy wanted to use it for an investment property we asked him if we could rent back from him until we found another home to move our family too. He said no, and he also said he wanted us out in 12 days! Talk about feeling kicked out! But we were ecstatic that the house had sold. My parents immediately offered for us to stay in their home. They are empty-nesters and have 3 open bedrooms so they said we were welcome to come and stay until we could find a new place to live. LESSON LEARNED: I want to be that kind of a parent one day. (Thanks for the great example Mom and Dad!)

THE CATCH:
Here was the catch. Since the buyer was paying cash for the home he didn't have to qualify for a loan - making it possible to close on the home in the 12 days. We were supposed to close on June 4th and the buyer wanted us totally out of the home on the 4th! But Craig had a week long business trip that he had to leave for on June 1st. He wasn't going to be back until the 6th. We had to be out before then. So that kind of threw a wrench in everything - we had to move out before Craig left and before the home actually closed. Talk about scary! What if the buyer backed out and our stuff was already out of the house? Moving out before the home actually closed! Yikes! We did pray about this decision first. It felt right to move out of the home and scary as it all was we felt very much at peace that this was the right thing to do. LESSON LEARNED: Sometimes leaps of faith are required. It's part of the test.

THE MOVE:
We moved out on May 31st - the day before Craig left on his business trip. We got most of our stuff put in storage. What wouldn't fit in storage went to Craig's parent's garage (thank you Marc and Treesa!). And we went to my parent's house with basically our clothes and our toothbrushes!!

UNSOLD:
June 4th - our close date - came and went. Craig got back from his business trip and the house still had not closed! It was hard to communicate with the buyer and he had to get a power of attorney because he lived across the world! So things were taking longer than expected. We were on pins and needles waiting for the house to close! I swear I plead with the Lord every night that the house would just close so we could stop worrying. After EVERY prayer I always got the same feeling, "It's all going to be ok." At this point my faith had been stretched to the max, and it was starting to wear thin. But if Heavenly Father says it's all going to be ok - then it's all going to be ok.

Last week my dad (our realtor) got an e-mail from the buyer's realtor saying that the buyer had backed out. The buyer no longer wanted to purchase the home. No reason why not - no explanation - he just backed out. I cried. And I never cry!! But I cried. Many times. I was angry. Does this man in Budapest realize that he just kicked a family with 3 young children out of their home? We did everything he asked us to. We moved out by the 4th, we left the house clean, we signed all the documents. We did everything he requested - and then he backed out. I was livid! How does he sleep at night knowing he did that to a family? Oh, the things I would have said to him had I seen him face to face! LESSON LEARNED: People don't always follow through.

I must admit I felt abandoned by God as well. He said "everything was going to be ok." To me, this was NOT ok!! Did I miss something somewhere? Did I do something wrong? What IS going on? I truly felt that I had put my trust in Heavenly Father. And we were left with nothing but a very expensive and time consuming move that got us nowhere!! (My attitude had become very poor at this point). (Yes, I have since repented.) :) I was left thinking, "Ok Heavenly Father, where do we go from here?" LESSON LEARNED: The Lord's version of "ok" might be different than our version of "ok". Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways . . . as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

DECISION TIME:
Craig and I laid out some options in answer to the question "Where do we go from here?" Option #1: We could move back into the house, yeah it would be a pain after all that packing and moving, but we could do it. Option #2: We could rent the house out. We owned a rental property before a few years back so we know the drill with having renters in our home. It's stressful and can be a hassle, but it's an option. Option #3: Let it go into foreclosure. It's definitely a trend in this housing market!

We very quickly decided that we didn't want to do option #3. We didn't feel right about letting the house go. Everyone's situations are different and everyone has their reasons for letting a house go into foreclosure, but at this point we felt that that option was not a good one for us.

Our second thought was, "Let's just move back in." We figured all of this packing and moving stuff could have just been a trial to see if we would do what we felt we were directed to do. After all, maybe this was our Zion's Camp! We were sent away from home maybe it was right to go back. Maybe there were a few more things that needed to fall into place before we actually officially moved closer to family. Maybe this part was just a test. But this is the cool part - both of us in our personal prayers felt VERY strongly that we were NOT to move back to Goodyear. That is not where the Lord wanted our family at this time. At least the Lord was keeping Craig and I on the same page!

So we were left with option #2. We decided to rent the house out. We told my dad we wanted to list the house to rent the night of June 9th. The next morning on the 10th he laid our rental paperwork on all of the leasing agents desks at work. Letting them know that our home was available to rent. Our house rented in two hours! TWO HOURS! If that's not a sign from God then I don't know what is! It's almost like Heavenly Father wasn't even going to give us a chance to think about moving back in! Everything had fallen into place. LESSON LEARNED: Heavenly Father is truly in control.

So now here we are - living in my parents home. If God wanted us close to family we sure are REALLY close to family!! I still have not quite figured out the reason we are supposed to be close to family. I have concocted a 100 different reasons why in my mind. Maybe Craig will get a job transfer out of state and we will end up raising our family far away, and this is a time to be close to family before we leave? Maybe Craig will lose his job and we'll need some help (sure hope that's not the case!)? Maybe something bad will happen whether it's an injury or a death in the family and we'll need family's support or they will need ours? Or maybe it's something positive like we're just supposed to live on this side of town and raise our family over here? Maybe we're supposed to move back to Goodyear in a year when our renter's lease is up, but for whatever reason we have something to learn over here? I have no idea.

For now we are letting the "waters" settle. We aren't going to jump head first into buying a home right away. We've looked in a couple neighborhoods at some affordable houses, but we just have the feeling to wait. Maybe the house we are supposed to live in isn't for sale yet? Or I don't know, but we have the feeling, for now, we are to wait. LESSON LEARNED: Patience is a virtue!

This has all been a very difficult experience to go through. My faith has been tested more than I ever thought it would be! The biggest lesson that I think I have learned overall has been that the Lord has a plan for our family. Even if I'm a little bit "in the dark" about what the plan is - He has a plan for us. He has only revealed to us what we have been ready to know. He hasn't given us the big picture. Thus far it's been revealed to us one piece at a time so that our faith has grown in the process. They say that we grow through our trials - let me tell ya - we're growin' like crazy over here!! Hee Hee!

Here's to hoping the renters pay on time - heck, pay at all - that they don't trash our house, and that they don't kill the grass. Who knows, maybe the market will turn around in the next couple of years and we'll end up selling the home and getting a lot of equity out of it? Maybe we'll end up moving back in the coming years? Doesn't the unknown just kill ya sometimes?!!! :)

And congratulations if you actually made it through this whole post. You deserve a prize - SERIOUSLY!!