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.

Moved! (Part 3)

Now we had an offer on the table for the blue house, and it was time to also put our house on the market to sell.

Immediately God began speaking to me.  Much of the messages He spoke seemed very cryptic at first, but looking back we can see how each and every word He spoke fit perfectly into His plan.

From the very beginning God said to me "I've Got This."  Seems like funny words coming from the God of the universe, but He said them nonetheless.  Those words said so much to me.

First, they said that He does indeed 'have this' blue hose buying, and current house selling situation.  He is in control no matter what we think, or what could possible come down the road.

Second, it seemed to be a warning that this would not turn out to be the simple buy-and-sell process that we expected.  A reminder for us to lean on Him when confusion and trials come.  Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Another thing He kept repeating to me was the words "1-week."  Although He said 1-week, He never did tell me exactly what that 1-week meant.  Hubby and I made various speculations.  Everything from 'we will sell our house in 1-week' to we will sell our house with just 1-week left on our contract.  But this 1-week phrase kept us on our toes and on our knees in prayer with God.  After-all, He was the only one that could answer the questions about His timing.  We ended up accepting the offer 1-week before our original closing date of June 8th, 2018.

Then God started speaking to me in dreams...again.

I had two dreams that both happened in real life just as they had played out in my sleeping hours.

The first dream was me in our house and many people coming wanting to buy it.  Two of the people that wanted to buy our house in the dream were people I recognized from our neighborhood.

Well, that happened.  We had over 30 people come to look at our home.  That feels like a lot when you home-school 3 kids and have to keep the house clean and make yourself disappear at any given time so strangers can come look at your home.  Also, two of the people that wanted to buy our house were from our neighborhood!  One was the newly married children of some neighbors of ours, but they were not sure they could scrape together the money or not.  And another one was a couple that was buying a larger house in the neighborhood and didn't like how the inspection reports came back, so they were trying to decide if they should make an offer on our home or not.

Then I had another dream.  In this dream we had 3 offers on our home and in the end of it all had to choose which offer we were suppose to take.

Guess what?  That dream also happened.  We had one offer on the house that we decided not to take.  Then we had two more offers and we had to decide which one we was for us.

The offers were actually pretty stressful because they were basically the same offer by different people, and they all came near the very end of our contract period.  It all came down to timing.  We were running out of time for when we needed to close on the Blue House, so we needed to choose the offer that would fit into that time frame and not drag out the selling process even longer.

You see, the sellers of the Blue House said that they simply would not extend our closing date, so if we accepted an offer that dragged out the closing of our house then we may be left homeless due to the owners of the Blue House not cooperating with us for an extension.

So, we prayed.  We prayed and prayed and prayed.  We did not want to move twice.  We didn't want to go hunting for another home when it took us years to find this one.  We didn't want to be homeless trying to find a place to live in a lurch.  We were down to the wire for our contracted closing date on the Blue House.  It was the end of May, and our closing date on the new house was set for June 8, 2018.  Yikes!

So what did we do?  I sent out text messages to some of my prayer team friends and asked them to pray.

I also sent messaged to a few of my close prophetic prayer teammates and asked them to let me know if the Lord told them anything about me to let me know.  (I did not give them details about my situation because I wanted them to hear from the Lord and not be swayed by my personal details.)

Wayne and I sat in the closet and prayed a lot.  God spoke a lot.  But the decision was ultimately ours.  Do we move forward and lean on God, or do we pull the plug and stop now?

I told God that if this all worked out and we did indeed close on our New Blue House on the official closing date that I would make a stone of remembrance to sit at the front door: Established - June 8, 2018 - By the Glory of God

After all those prayers and prophetic messages coming in from my friends and all the words the Lord had been speaking I decided that Wayne and I needed to sit with two men that I have known, loved and trusted since I was a small child.  They are both prayer warriors and prophetic prayer ministers, and maybe what they would say would make sense of this situation for us and help us decide.

The men agreed to let us come sit with them, and they prophesied over us, then they listed to what was going on, gave advice and prayed.  We left feeling like we should keep moving forward.

I'm sure that everyone we spoke to throughout this particular time thought we should just stop, but that was not what Wayne and I were feeling.  Would we pass this test or go down in a brilliant flame of destruction?

You see, at this moment in time we had the ability to halt everything.  We could not accept the offers on the table to sell our house.  Then our contract on the new house would fall through because of the inability to sell our current home and close timely.  We would simply stay where we were, lose our earnest money and and continue life as usual.

The problem was, I knew that God was calling us to something different, and I also knew that if we didn't move now we probably never would move and step out to that something more that God was calling us to.  It reminded me of that dream I had about my hubby's birthday where we were all still in the same place, a family, but discontent and not living to the potential God had for us.

Or, we had the power to accept one of the offers on our house.  Pray it would close on time (the realtors and title companies said it was impossible to close that quickly because turnaround was longer than 3-weeks.  They insisted that we WOULD NOT close by June 8th.  Period.). 

Or not close on time and know we have to now look for another home while living in a temporary place and moving twice.

Since we felt like we must move forward to obey God, which offer do we accept?

Will we sell and close on our house in time to close on the new home?  According to the Title company that was impossible.  But we serve a God that make the impossible possible.

Eeek!

Moved! (Part 2)

Somehow that house sat on the market and stayed available through four months of my husband's busy season at work!  I almost couldn't believe it, but in my mind it was the power of prayer.  God had a plan for us there and was giving us every opportunity to move.  Well, until He would eventually remove that opportunity.  Opportunities don't stick around forever; especially if we are refusing them.

One night a few weeks after hubby's busy season ended I woke from a deep sleep and sat bolt straight in my bed.  I woke my husband up and told him that we were suppose to make an offer on the house in the morning.  He said, "I'm not ready to make an offer" rolled over and went back to sleep.

That afternoon the realtor called and informed us that an offer had been made on the blue house, did we want to put in an offer also?  We had been keeping in touch with the realtor over the months, and he knew we were interested. 

Once during our many conversations the realtor said he simply couldn't figure out why this house hadn't sold yet.  There had been previous offers that had fallen through, but each one for strange reasons.  There had been nothing wrong with the surveys and inspections.

I told him that the kids and I had been praying for God to hold the house for us, and he replied, "So, you're my problem."  Then he gave a hearty laugh with a twinkle in his eye. 

So, are we going to make a secondary offer?

No.  The answer was no!

I couldn't believe it.

I thought this was what we fought for, striven toward.  To get through the busy season and then move where the Lord was leading us.  Why not make an offer?

My husband wanted to wait and see what would happen with the offer on the table.  He didn't want to get into a bidding war.  He said that if this truly was the house God had for us then the offer would fall through.

Ok.  Well, that became our prayer.  We prayed for that offer to fall through.

The lady that made the offer on the house had inspections completed and we waited.  Every day I waited expecting to hear that she either pulled out or that the house was past the option period and sold.  I waited, prayed and waited some more. 

Suddenly, just before her option period ended the realtor let us know that the lady that made the offer decided to pull out because there was not enough room on the land for a barn, RV pad, horse grazing and a pool.  Hallelujah!  The house was back on the market.

Then, I had a dream.  I not only believe that God still speaks to us today, but I KNOW He still speaks to us today.  He speaks in many ways, but the real question is, are we listening?  One of the ways the Lord speaks to me is through dreams.

(This dream took place 6 years into the future.)

I had this dream in the early morning hours of the night (around 3:30am).  It was a blurred vision with only the center of it being clear and the outside edges were blurred as in an effect of an old movie.  The tone of the vision was a darker yellow gold. 

We were in our current starter house, and I was feeling disenchanted.  The kids were older (6 years older) and also seemed dulled down and internally unhappy.  It was my husband's 45th birthday and we had a white cake with strawberries on it and candles lit on the top.  Hubby was dressed in his business clothes and had become quite successful, but seemingly unfulfilled.  We were singing happy birthday to him and bringing him his cake in the breakfast room to blow out the candles.  It was a sweet moment, but the underlying emotion was dissatisfaction and frustration. 

In the dream I had a short conversation with the Lord in my head.  I asked Him (in my mind), "Why are we still here?"  (I was asking why were we still in our same house not living the life God intended for us.  Yes, we still loved and obeyed God, but His full plan was being staunched.)  God answered me.  He said, "Because he does not know how to reach out and grasp the wonderful things set before him.  Instead he is always waiting for something better.  So he waits afraid that he will miss out on the best thing instead of living the wonderful life in front of him now."

Honestly, I was both sad and angry when a flashback of various opportunities rose up in my minds eye and each of them had been passed by.

The dream ended.

I woke up from that dream knowing that God had spoken to me, and also know that I had to share this with my husband.  

When we talked about the dream he took a deep breath and realized that the dream was 100% accurate.  He was determined to break that fear from himself in order to not allow the spirit of disillusionment to take hold.  He set his mind to moving forward wherever the Lord spoke for us to move.  Now the real battle was to begin.

We made an offer on the blue house.

Moved! (Part 1)

(The story is long, but the adventure is worth the read if you can hang with me awhile.  I will do this particular post in parts.  Welcome to Part 1.)

Did I mention that we moved this past year?

Yes, we did, and it was a fantastic struggle in the spiritual world.  Apparently the enemy did not want us to move from our old location to our new location.

Any person in their right physical mind would have given up and found another home.  Well, we are different.  We clung to the hopes God had given us.

Let me back up and start from the beginning.

My hubby and I have lived in our very first starter home since our 1st wedding anniversary; the past 15 years.  It was a cute home in a good location that started off in a suburban area.  Over the years that area turned into a very busy concrete jungle of a city.  This 'city' had been my country haven as a little girl growing up, but now very little of that good country feel remained.

We worked and lived in that starter house with a tiny backyard and neighbors directly next door.  We had wonderful neighbors for the first several years, and although many of them where still there when we moved, many of them had moved themselves and we lost that wonderful family feel in the neighborhood.  The new families that moved in around us kept to themselves and did not want to get to know the rest of us.

While we lived there we had friends over, Bible studies, a dog, fish and turtles, a vegetable garden and then finally 3 children of our own.  As our family grew from the inside and the city around us grew from the outside our tiny yard and beginner house began to feel more like a closet for this country girl at heart.

I had begun longing for a move to a more country location with the minimum of a large backyard in which the kids and I could escape the confines of walls and artificial lighting.  Not only that, but I connect with the Lord through nature.  I feel most at peace, and hear Him more loudly when I am surrounded by His creation.  This deep longing to move drew straight from my soul.

My husband and I began looking at houses with more land, but several years past where we were unable to find what we liked and what fell in our price range; not to mention our location parameters.  After years of looking we stopped browsing for awhile, and my heart grew more restless.

One day my husband was looking at houses online, and he found one that he thought might work.  It was a blue country home that had not been lived in for a while.  The first time I looked at it through the lens of the computer screen I wasn't so sure about it and couldn't tell if it would be a good fit for us or not.  (Spoiler Alert: this 'blue house' would be the one we move into.)  So the two of us picked a handful of homes to go look at in person to see what we thought and felt.  We decided to take the kids with us too!

That first drive we took to see these country homes felt very long, and made us unsure about the location we had chosen.  The kids were squirmy and restless in the van, and I wasn't sure if I could ever lean the back road route to get there. 

But, one thing that did happen on that drive was an overwhelming sense of peace.  The further we drove from our starter house and the closer we drew to the blue house seemed to lift all the cares and heaviness off my shoulders.  I was surrounded by peace and calm. 

We finally reached the property and the very moment it came into view I KNEW this was our home.  It felt like home. 

All three kids said, "Can we move into the blue house?  We love it!  It's going to be our new home."  This was a HUGE deal to me.  My kids are not proponents of change.  Ever since we had begun talking about moving and visiting a few prospective houses over the years before they would cry and declare that they would never move.  After years of struggle, we pull into the driveway of this blue house and all three kids immediately wanted to live here.  They hadn't even gone inside yet!

Let me give you a picture of what we saw so you can understand that this was NOT the dream picture every family wants to see.

The house had not been lived in for some months.  The grass was overgrown.  There were lawnmower tracks of mud in a low spot of the front yard.  All the flower beds were tall weed beds, and many of the the bushes were dead.  Tree branches and pine cones littered the yard, but the feeling of peace and home were overwhelming.

The swing-set in the backyard needed a lot of work to get it usable.  Broken boards, broken swings and rusted metal.  The vegetable garden was nothing but 6 foot tall briers and thistles surrounded by an old and sagging fence.  It would have to be completely ripped out and started over.  Yet I had visions of God touching and healing people on this land.  I saw a ministry where roots of bitterness were ripped out of those that stepped foot here, and hope restored.  I saw more than weeds and work...I saw a vision of life.

The realtor led us inside the house and it was covered in dust and dead bugs.  Not a pretty picture when showing a home to potential buyers.  But those dead bugs didn't stop our kids.  They ran right in, claimed their rooms and started chanting that they would be moving to the blue house.

The more I saw the more I was convinced that after years of searching I was finally home.

Over the next few weeks we looked at several more houses, but kept coming back to this blue house.  Every time I came back to visit and see if it truly was what we were looking for the more solidified it was in my mind that this is where we should be. 

I began dreaming about the blue house.  I began having visions of ministry and family there.  It became home in my heart before it became our home. 

But...my husband was not so sure. 

He crunched numbers, thought manly thoughts and simply could not decide if this actually was the home for us or if we were just being 'emotional' about the house.

'Operation Blue House' began.  The kids and I began praying daily that if we were suppose to have the blue house that God would save it for us until hubby was on board.

Then my husband announced that he would NOT be making a decision to move until his 'busy season' at work was over.  That was four months away!  That house would most definitely sell before his busy season ended.  We begged and pleaded, but he explained that trying to buy a house, sell and house and move during his busy season at work was a heart attack waiting to happen.  Too much stress.  He had to be past that time for us to have a move, and if the house was still there we would make an offer; if it was sold, well, then there were other houses out there.  (Yeah, well it took us YEARS to find this one... I was NOT ready to wait more YEARS!) 

So I simply doubled 'Operation Blue House'.  Talking to God about this alone and with the kids.  Asking Him what His will was.  Asking Him for dreams and visions about what our next step should be.  We asked him to hold that house through the busy season so it would be ready for us in the new year.

We asked...what would God do?