Moved! (Part 4 - Final Episode)

Now it was time to accept on of the two offers on the table.

Lord Help us!

We learned that one of the two offers was actually a cash offer, so that would speed up the process, but would still delay us by a few weeks.  The turnaround simply takes that long.

So, with the offer accepted, we began negotiations with the sellers of the blue house to try to extend the closing date 'just in case' we couldn't close by June 8th.  And all the 'powers that be' said we could close on June 18th at the earliest; ten days later than we needed.

Here is where everything gets hairy and our patience is continually tried.

At first, the Blue House Sellers decided that since we have a contract on our house that they would indeed let us push back the close date on their house 10 days.

They also said we could do a lease of the blue house for whatever days we needed between the sell of our house and the close of their house so we would not need to move twice and find temporary housing.  Wow!  Sounds great.  Looks like everything will work out.

Because of the possible need for a lease, they agreed to let us start moving some of the kids toys, clothes and dishes into their house on June 2nd to make the day of the coming 'big move' easier.

We worked up a lease agreement just in case that would be needed, and started moving our non-daily, essential items into the new house.

Oops!  Not so fast.

Now that the Blue House Sellers knew that we had a contract on our house we started getting phone calls from their realtor (who we did not know before this process, but is now a great friend of ours) not only daily, but several times a day about 'changes'.

We were 'stuck'.  Having to sell our home or possibly face legal actions, and the people of the house we were buying were suddenly not so agreeable.

They began asking for money.  Lots of money (in addition to a lease if that was needed), for various and sundry different things.

Then they started threatening us with not closing.

It felt as if they suddenly didn't want to sell their home after-all.  Give us extra $ here, here and here, and some more extra $ just because, and we may go ahead and close, but hey, maybe not.

This went back and forth several times a day for several days in a row and I thought I may just scream.  I was worried about the stress it was causing my husband, and the realtor had never seen anything like this before.  Why had the sellers suddenly become so offensive in the sell of a house they have been trying to sell for a year?  They didn't' even live there, they had moved out of state and the house sat empty.

Every time we thought we had come to an agreement they came back with more, more, more needed.  It felt wrong and dirty.  It felt like the enemy didn't want us to move or have this house, and maybe even worse; get us into some strange legal battle that we never thought was possible.

Then suddenly the blue house sellers decided that we did not have permission to have our stuff in their house and started demanding 'storage fees' for the items we had moved into the house in advance.

Then a day later they changed their tune and said it was OK, just leave the stuff there.  But dont' move anything new in, don't turn on the a/c and don't go hang out there.  Well, we hadn't been doing any of that stuff...sooo.

What do we do?

I have already had the utilities changed for specific dates, and now I have to change them again.  That is trash, water, gas, electricity, phone, Internet...  And the movers had been set.

After praying and praying Wayne and I realized that the only answer was to close on June 8th; the original closing date.  So we told the Lord how we felt and what we thought we needed and asked Him to show up big time.

We called the underwriters and they were able to move the closing date up to June 14th.  Four days earlier, but still six days too late.

I was told to change the utilities again to the new dates we had set, so I called all those companies and made change requests.  And called the movers for the new move date.

Even with the move up of the closing date the sellers were still going crazy and asked for even more money.  What is going on?  So we prayed again and called the underwriters again.

And guess what?

We were able (ahem...God was able) to get the closing date set on the sell of our home to June 7th and the closing of the new blue house to June 8th.  The original closing date.

The title company ladies, the realtor, our friends and family all said WOW!  That is a miracle.

Both the realtor and the title company ladies kept saying, "I have never seen a closing moved up so many days and so quickly.  This is a miracle."

Well, guess what?  God is in the miracle working business.  He didn't want us extorted.  He didn't see the need for us to pay tons of money to the sellers.  He didn't' even think there was a need for us to lease.  He saw to it that we would close and move in and be done with it.  Period.

So, I called to utilities companies and movers again to change our change requests.

Oddly enough, the sellers of the blue house were upset that we made it to the original closing date, so on June 7th the sellers of the blue house told us to go get our stuff out of their house.  The stuff they told us to put there to make our move easier.  The stuff they said was OK.  Now, the day before we move OUT of our house and into their house they want us to move the stuff out of their house.  For ONE DAY!  I am doing last minute preparations for the move, but now I have to go move out items that I had moved in over a handful of days taking several trips.  I had moved all my posts, pans dishes, closets and toys.  Now I have to move them out so I can move them in again the next day after our closing on the other side of town.

So, go move out our stuff we did.  Honestly, I prayed the entire time.  I was nervous about what these volatile people could be capable of.

The next day we went to the closing with the threat that the sellers would not sign and send the paperwork, so we were not sure if we actually would be closing on a house that day.  Even with movers showing up in a few hours.

We walked into the title company and the ladies said they had received the overnight-ed documents, she just had to open them to make sure they were properly signed.  And...they were!

We closed on June 8, 2018.  The original closing date.  And guess what sits next to our front door?  A stone that says, "Established - June 8, 2018 - By the Glory of God"

God still does miracles today.  Not only salvation.  Not only healing.  Yes, those too, but He is interested in the mundane, daily details of my life AND YOUR LIFE too.

Give Him the details of your life.  Talk to Him all day long.  Listen for His responses.  Love Him like a best friend and He will actually become your best friend.

                                                                                    -Natalie

PS - The closing date ended up being more important than we knew.  Come to find out that the sellers had taken out a short term loan to keep the house on the market long enough to close, and that lone would mature and all interest would be due if they were not able to pay it off on June 8th.  So God not only had our best interests at heart, but He had their best interest at heart too.  They were just too stressed at the time to see it, but I pray that they KNOW His great love for them now.

PPS - We also found out that the sub floor of the upstairs has scriptures written all over it because the former family had a scripture and prayer party before laying down the permanent flooring.  So we are set on a bed of scripture and His Word is literally a banner over us.

Oh, and did I ever tell you that God named our new place?

Yup!  He calls it Redemption Road.  And He has big plans for us here.