#homeowners
Coach
Husband & I have a new hashtag to share! Today we
closed on our first home this afternoon.
Words do not accurately express all the feelings we have at the moment
but above everything else I think we would say grateful is at the top. God truly used the last six months to grow
both CH & myself individually, and our together in our marriage. I know as life moves forward and we enter a
new season we will be tempted to forget this time of ultimate provision so I
will attempt to record the story God wrote for us recently to remember.
Six
months ago Coach Husband and I felt the Lord closing the door on our current
jobs and city. It seemed as though CH
would not have a coaching position in the fall, neither of us felt grounded or
rooted and we figured while we are young and childless why not move somewhere
crazy and start over? We attend college
here, met here and started married life together here. We felt comfortable and as if we were mired
in routine but not moving forward. CH
began to actively pursue other coaching opportunities and I continually quoted
Ruth 1:16 to both him and myself. “Where
you go I’ll go. Where you stay I
stay.” I was more than willing to pack
up our home and life in our current place and move wherever his career took
us. We interviewed everywhere it
seemed. Phone interviews, in person
interviews, written essay interviews. At
each moment when it seemed the new job was within his reach something came out
of left field. One promising position
did not have a math opening, and so the contract could not be extended, another
wanted him to teach at a middle school and come over to the high school for
football practice. It was after one of
these heartbreaking conversations with yet another head coach that Coach
Husband turned to me and said, “I’m done
chasing, done trying and believing the Lord has a plan.”
In
that moment we experienced complete surrender in our marriage to God’s greater
plan. And with that, God began to
move. When CH went back to work the
following Monday he was called into a meeting with the principal and assured of
his coaching position for the following year.
We began to feel at peace and rejuvenated about our city and felt God
stirring in our hearts a permanent home.
As we began the house hunt we were incredibly optimistic with good
reason. The first house we walked into
was my dream home and I fell in love.
Everything about it from the screened in back porch to the porch swing
on the front porch was made for Emily.
We put in an offer and left on our cruise confident that we would be
calling the little grey house ours. When
docked in Galveston there was a voicemail waiting, letting us know that the
seller’s had chosen a different offer and that we would be on the hunt again.
Y’all,
I don’t even know how many houses we looked at.
Seriously it got to the point where my frustration level was off the
charts. My sweet parents were in town
almost every weekend going on showings with us and guiding us through the
process. It was one such weekend when my
mother once again brought up a neighborhood that was well above our
budget. She had mentioned “driving
through just to see” multiple times before and this time we agreed to be
nice. As we drove down the street and
saw quite a few houses for sale out of our price range I was beginning to feel
quite smug. And then we drove up to this
grey house, with a porch swing and black shutters looking so much like the one
we had lost two weeks earlier. The sign
boldly proclaimed PRICE REDUCED and I remember sarcastically pointing that
out. One phone call to our relator later
had the smug grin off my face and the relator headed to the home to let us
in. God had once again worked a miracle. We put in an offer that night, well below
asking price and completely confident they would not see fit to respond. Instead the next morning they countered. CH went in with our final number and I
mentally and emotionally prepared myself to lose another grey house when the
call came through that they had accepted.
We were under contract.
We
went into the home inspection knowing there would be some issues. Daddy and CH had done a cursory walk through
and already discovered a handful of issues that would need to be addressed. When the home inspector recommended three
major repairs though we were blindsided.
After some serious prayer and thought we went back to the seller’s and
asked for them to fix just one. The
electrical wiring throughout the house would need to be addressed and once
again we braced ourselves with the thought we might have to walk away. Once again though God was good to us and the
seller’s agreed with no qualms.
Today
as we signed a million and one documents and handed over a check we have spent
the last two years of marriage saving for, I was once again struck at how good
& faithful the Lord has been. We
reached a point where fully & totally trusting in His provision and plan
was our only option, because doing it on our own was not going to work. I truly believe He was patiently waiting for
us to come to Him and hand these burdens over as a testament to His power,
grace and blessings. The sudden coaching
position, each and every step of the house buying process even as we prepare
for this move that begins tomorrow, was not possible without His
intervention. The Lord wanted no doubt
that it was through His power and planning that we received or accomplished any
of these gifts.
Our
family motto all spring and summer has been, God is good & God is
faithful. We have come to know that
phrase and what it truly means intimately and fully over the last half year. We are so grateful for His grace, His blessing,
His undeserved goodness and His unwavering faithfulness.
We
will begin some small renovations tomorrow with the help of my ever handy
parents & the blog will soon be flooded with before and after pictures, DIY
projects and the process of making this new house our home. I am excited to be on this adventure and have
my mom be actively involved in the process!
I can hardly contain my excitement for the first gathering of
friends.
Stay
tuned for house updates!
