Ahhh, my friends.  Thank you for your gracious love and support when I revealed our blunder.  Yes, Kelly G, we are indeed very, very, very human.   We have made many mistakes over the years and although we were hoping they were all behind us, we are so thankful that God covers mistakes and His loving fingerprints are seen in each step of the ‘making it right’ process.

I’m grateful that the Lord has allowed our situation to encourage others.  So here’s our open hearts – learn from our mistakes and know that He is on the throne lovingly working on your behalf, no matter what.  This is just our personal journey.

So a short recap, we moved into the home just about the first of July, took our 6,000+ mile trip across the country {met some of the sweetest bloggy people in the world – shout out to the Hintz family, Janet and Kevin and kids and GG, Mary and Stacie when the car broke down and re-connected with precious old friends like Mary Mc, Liberty’s birth family and Lori…laughed, cried and had a blast….came back for just over a week, found out about Nehemiah, left to drive to Colorado for Autumn and Karl’s wedding, returned home to meet Nehemiah, moved him to our home, and then put the home on the market on about October 1st after being in it just 3 months.   Whew.  It was a crazy few months.

We made a really short list of what we wanted in the home: a good-sized backyard with a pool and place to romp and closer to our church {we LOVE our church} and to be moved in before Christmas so Emma would know home before she moved to Uganda.   We had a dreamy part of our list too…and it included having palm trees.   Some neighborhoods in Phoenix do not allow palm trees, how crazy is that?

We began our search and found a few homes that sort of would work, but there was always something about them that wasn’t quite right.  Like one home was a tri-level with a huge yard but it had stairs everywhere and although it was a nice home with a big yard, Ruby in a wheelchair did not need stairs everywhere.   There were many short sales.

Weeks passed as we looked.

We managed to keep our home so sparkling clean!  It was such a team effort!  All the kids were amazing.

Then our home sold.

And boy-oh-boy did we have a celebration on our family room floor with fun food – to thank the Lord for selling the house after only 20 showings and one month on the market.

Now we could get really serious about looking.

We went back to one with a set of very steep stairs leading up to the master and three bedrooms.  It had been on the market for months, vacant and also a short sale.  We prayed a lot.  We decided to go for it.  Our realtor called the listing agent:  it had just sold a few hours before.  Talk about literally closing the door.  And quite honestly, I was relieved {that set of stairs was a bit daunting, especially carrying precious Ruby}.  I knew God had our back.  He had something even better.   To sit on the market for months and have no activity at all, and then to sell as we were about to make an offer.  Crazy but so cool.

As I prayed and fasted I felt like the Lord had whispered, “citrus” to me.  As though He was saying, “There will be citrus on the property when you find it.”  That now turned it into a treasure hunt!

We kept looking.

Then we found the most amazing home – it had everything we could want, but no pool {or citrus}.  The yard was huge.  It backed up to a mountain with amazing views.  {On a side note, have you ever noticed how many mountains there are in and around Phoenix?  They are stunning – I ooh and aah about them each and every day.}

Anyway, back to that mountain home – it even had a laundry chute.  The bedrooms would work.  It was such a peaceful neighborhood…and it was a short sale.

Our realtor spoke to the realtor on the other side.  Interestingly, it was actually about to go to auction.  We wondered if the Lord had worked the timing of the auction for the closure of our home making it possible to head to the auction with our money in hand?

We prayed a ton.  We were close to making a decision.  We went to see a few more houses and ended up back at the home with the laundry chute that backed to the mountain but had no pool and was going to auction.

Then our realtor got a call, it was actually supposed to go to auction in just two days.  He had an idea – he knew of an investor who would front the money for us {for a fee} and go to auction and buy the house for us.  And then we could buy it from him when we got our money out of our closing.

I decided to fast and ask the Lord what He thought about the auction idea.  And so clearly, He reminded me of this verse:   “the borrower is the slave of the lender.”  Proverbs 22:7b

Wow.  Just like that.

Graham happened to be home and I mentioned it all to him.  He said, “Mom, I just don’t feel good about borrowing the money for the auction.”  The Lord had reminded him of that verse as well.

So the next day we were going to see some houses, including the auction one.   As we were driving there, I asked, “Whitey, what do you think?”

He told me.

Then he asked, “What do you think?”

I began, “You know how God’s word never changes?  Not ever?  Well remember the verse that the borrower is slave to the lender?  I think that since God’s word doesn’t change, He is not saying, ‘it’s okay this time to ignore my warnings’.  He doesn’t do that.  He meant what He said a couple of thousand years ago, ‘borrower is slave to the lender.’  God could have timed it different if that was the home for us, but He didn’t. I think that sweet house is a test.  And we are either going to pass or fail.  I don’t think we are supposed to get the guy to loan us the money….and I think if we pass the test, God is going to reveal His plan immediately.”

Even as I spoke those bold words, I had such assurance that He really was going to reveal His plan immediately.  I knew that they were His words!  And I don’t believe I would have had that strong God-assuring word if I hadn’t fasted.   I had complete peace and I knew that I knew that I knew.

Dw agreed.  We told our realtor we were going to pass on the auction idea.  If the house didn’t go to auction and we had our own money out of our home, then we would consider it.

Our realtor asked us, “Okay, so your home is closing in two weeks and you have to move out?  What’s your back-up plan?”  

We laughed.  We didn’t have a back-up plan.  We just knew that the Lord was going to come through.  Our realtor was getting a bit nervous for us, which made us giggle – he really cared about our large family finding a home.

Within an hour of saying “no” to the auction home, we went to look at a new listing on the market…it was pretty nice, although there were some things that would not be optimal.

BUT we had noticed as we had headed into the subdivision to look at that not-so-optimal home, a sign kind of tucked in some bushes in front of a neighboring home…so our realtor called about it.  It was empty.  We turned our cars around and went three doors down to this sign-hiding-in-the-bush home.   Our kind-hearted realtor unlocked the door and instantly Dw, our realtor and I fanned out.  We kind of ran from room to room.  If Candid Camera had been filming, I’m sure you all would have chuckled.    Our realtor had figured us out pretty well and he had a good idea of what we were looking for….

And the best part of all….the backyard had something so extraordinarily exciting –

 grass!!!!! {Yippee Jesus!!}

and lo and behold there it was:  oranges!!

We were amazed!

It felt sooooo homey.  We could not believe it.  It actually reminded us of our last home in Colorado.

So with 5 days until we had to move out of our home, we found out that our offer was accepted…

Five days to spare!  Faithful God.

And the rest is history….and here we are…moving in just before Christmas….

Yesterday morning Emma came downstairs to the kitchen and smiling ear-to-ear said, “I LOVE this home!”  Ahhhh.  Made my mommy heart smile.  She can picture us at home each day she is in Africa and, no doubt, there will be times when she will long for her home, even though she will have lived in it less than a month.

Faithful God.

My soul took such delight to now look out my kitchen window and see five little treasures: Jubilee, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Elizabeth and Elijah pulling each other around in a wagon in the backyard….playing with trucks…such joy!  The kids can be kids…and we can settle in and enjoy God’s faithful provision after such a dumb blunder…How we Praise His name!

How about you?

Do you have a Memorial Box story to share?

I know Susan A does…{hint-hint Susan}….so please post away…

[[I have had to put an approval monitor on the links…so they will not show up immediately as someone being evil posted some yukky stuff on the Thanksgiving post]]