We’ve been in our new house almost a year and I want to follow up on my previous post about our previous rented house going into foreclosure. As I said then, God has always provided the perfect house for our needs every time we’ve needed to move. Reminding myself of that helped me stay positive and hopeful as the process of trying to buy that house dragged on and then fell apart. When it became clear that we’d have to find a different house, it almost felt like a treasure hunt to find the house that would be clearly provided by God. And the day this house dropped in price to the point it showed up within our search parameters, I started to suspect we’d found it, even before I drove by on my lunch hour. When I walked around the yard and discovered it seemed bigger than the listing stated and saw how private and huge the back yard is, I felt even more strongly that this could be the one. As soon as we got to look around inside, we hoped it would be the one. It was a foreclosure and the price had dropped $10k every month, so we hoped a pretty lowball offer would be considered. Long story short, after even more evidences of God’s providential working, we were blessed with the opportunity to buy it. It has proven to be so amazingly perfect for our needs and for many of our wants. We thank God every day for it.
The house we moved from ended up finally selling recently – for about half what we had offered for it! It was owned by Freddie Mac, which we didn’t know until late in our unsuccessful attempt to buy it when our offer was rejected. Leave it to the government to accomplish that. (Yes, I know that Freddie Mac is supposedly technically not government-owned, but it really is since it gets bailed out by taxpayers when it is mismanaged by the bureaucrats who work there.) We’re so thankful we didn’t get it now, both because it would have been too big and expensive to maintain and because the house we’re in now is so perfect for our needs for this stage of our lives. We could be happy here for the rest of our lives and we’ll only be in our mid-80s when it’s paid for!
12/31/11 – I wrote the above less than a month before my husband died. Now I can say even more certainly that God spared me by preventing the purchase of the huge house and putting me in this one. Being alone here is still lonely with his absence felt acutely, but I’m so thankful we experienced a year and a week together here, giving me memories of every season and every holiday here to treasure. This feels like home, which I haven’t felt in any rented house the previous 20 years. When my daughters visit, though none of them lived here, it feels to me like they’re coming home. Going through so many firsts without him – my birthday, his birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas – has been bittersweet, but now I have precious new memories of those times as a family to build on the old ones.
Now I face a whole new year without him. My new reality doesn’t feel normal yet and I can’t imagine how it ever will. But time passes – 3 months has felt slow and fast at the same time. I see how God has worked in my circumstances (another post someday) and I watch for how he’ll continue to do so. This house has become a very precious reminder to me daily of that and my faith is strengthened by it.
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Precious Promises 