My family and I have been living in our new house for 3 months now. We still have to pinch ourselves at times when we pull up the driveway. Just this week my 10-year old said to me, “I can’t believe this is our house now. It still doesn’t seem real!”
If you ever doubt that God works in the details of our lives, come sit down with me and hear my story.
My husband and I were married 13 years ago, this December. After our first 6 months of marriage, we decided to buy a small, 2 bedroom, 820 sq. ft. starter home, as an investment, rather than renting. We had no doubt that when we were ready and had a family, we would be able to turn around and sell our home to someone new also just starting out. Our new little home was affordable, cozy and close to family. Perfect!
Fast forward to 2008, daughter #2 had just been born and it felt like we were bursting at the seams. We consistently sold everything or gave away anything we didn’t need, constantly schemed up space saving solutions for our growing girls and tried to figure how on earth to make two closets IN THE ENTIRE HOUSE work for a somewhat messy, disorganized family of four. Needless to say, tiny living had completely lost its romance.
We decided to put our house on the market in 2008, when Annie was born. We held open houses, we staged the house for showings; my husband relentlessly searched real estate websites for a new home for us. Any time we had activity on the house, we prayed, we begged, that this would be time our house would sell.
Fast forward to 2008, daughter #2 had just been born and it felt like we were bursting at the seams. We consistently sold everything or gave away anything we didn’t need, constantly schemed up space saving solutions for our growing girls and tried to figure how on earth to make two closets IN THE ENTIRE HOUSE work for a somewhat messy, disorganized family of four. Needless to say, tiny living had completely lost its romance.
We decided to put our house on the market in 2008, when Annie was born. We held open houses, we staged the house for showings; my husband relentlessly searched real estate websites for a new home for us. Any time we had activity on the house, we prayed, we begged, that this would be time our house would sell.
Fast forward again to 2014. Six years, three realtors, COUNTLESS open houses, very few showings, one cranky and cramped family with ZERO offers and ZERO hope that we would ever live anywhere else.
Daily we reminded ourselves that we were thankful we had been able to provide for our daughters, that we lived close to home, we had all of our needs met and we were warm with food on the table and clothes on our backs. We truly were thankful to God for providing for our needs, but life in a tiny house was wearing on us. Trying to sell the house was stressful, having it staged all the time was taking its toll and it was becoming increasingly obvious that this house was where we were supposed to live. We needed to figure out how to be happy and content even without a garage and a bathtub.
And then the pieces of our answered prayer began to come together.
Although we didn’t know it, our answer actually began in four years earlier. As we had the house on the market, my husband started to look at different properties for sale and started to form a plan of what we were looking for, IF our house should sell. (I won’t get into all the backstory of how I absolutely hated talking about anything real estate related at this point!)
One afternoon he took us for a drive to a house out in the country – “I just want you to see it,” he said. I looked at it and said, “Eh. I’m not really interested in that house, but this house next to it looks nice!”
We drove up past that property and took a few minutes to admire. It had everything we ever talked about wanting! It was in the country (a dream of Clint’s), a pool (a dream of mine), some acreage, an outbuilding and two garages (more of Clint’s dreams and we’d never had a garage!), had a back porch and a front porch with gorgeous trees in the yard. The house was not huge, and the layout was a lot like the house I grew up in. We admired how pretty everything was, how well the owners had taken care of it and drove on.
Over the next couple of years we continued to go down back roads and look at different properties and occasionally we drove past that same house and continued to admire it. More and more we were drawn to this property, even to the point where we jokingly began to call it our DREAM HOUSE.
One afternoon he took us for a drive to a house out in the country – “I just want you to see it,” he said. I looked at it and said, “Eh. I’m not really interested in that house, but this house next to it looks nice!”
We drove up past that property and took a few minutes to admire. It had everything we ever talked about wanting! It was in the country (a dream of Clint’s), a pool (a dream of mine), some acreage, an outbuilding and two garages (more of Clint’s dreams and we’d never had a garage!), had a back porch and a front porch with gorgeous trees in the yard. The house was not huge, and the layout was a lot like the house I grew up in. We admired how pretty everything was, how well the owners had taken care of it and drove on.
Over the next couple of years we continued to go down back roads and look at different properties and occasionally we drove past that same house and continued to admire it. More and more we were drawn to this property, even to the point where we jokingly began to call it our DREAM HOUSE.
Over the next couple of years we continued to go down back roads and look at different properties and occasionally we drove past that same house and continued to admire it. More and more we were drawn to this property, even to the point where we jokingly began to call it our DREAM HOUSE.
Towards the end of 2013, after 5 years, we took the house off the market. It was becoming too stressful and I didn’t want to deal with it over the Christmas holidays.
A few months later, my husband chaperoned a field trip and struck up a conversation with the grandmother of one of the students in the class. He told her about our struggles to sell a house. She, in turn, told her daughter and husband, a newly relocated real estate team about our story and in the Spring of 2014, we were approached by Heather to see if we were interested in listing the house with her team (Go Team Martell! J). Heather was like a ray of hope to us. She was so friendly, excited, passionate and clearly invested in our story that before we knew it, we were listing the house on the market for the fourth time.
Towards the end of 2013, after 5 years, we took the house off the market. It was becoming too stressful and I didn’t want to deal with it over the Christmas holidays.
A few months later, my husband chaperoned a field trip and struck up a conversation with the grandmother of one of the students in the class. He told her about our struggles to sell a house. She, in turn, told her daughter and husband, a newly relocated real estate team about our story and in the Spring of 2014, we were approached by Heather to see if we were interested in listing the house with her team (Go Team Martell! J). Heather was like a ray of hope to us. She was so friendly, excited, passionate and clearly invested in our story that before we knew it, we were listing the house on the market for the fourth time.
Seems like this is the part of the story where I say that our house sold in two seconds flat, right? Nope. We were on the market for another 7 months before we had our very.first.offer.
We cried, we rejoiced, we prayed, we rallied friends to do the same, and we accepted the offer. I distinctly remember saying to my mother, “If this offer doesn’t go through, it will feel…cruel.” Surely this was the “Yes” answer we had been waiting for!
And then we never heard from the buyer again.
We were CRUSHED. It was at this point that I said to my husband, “No matter how we feel, we have to trust that God’s NO answer is just as good as His YES answer.” And we said that over and over to ourselves and to those who prayed with us. “We trust that God’s “NO” answer is JUST AS GOOD as His “YES” answer.”
Again we took the house off the market for the holidays and yet again, we decided that even though we were stressed and kind of miserable, we would buck up and make the best of living in our tiny house. Clearly we were where God wanted us.
And then we never heard from the buyer again.
We were CRUSHED. It was at this point that I said to my husband, “No matter how we feel, we have to trust that God’s NO answer is just as good as His YES answer.” And we said that over and over to ourselves and to those who prayed with us. “We trust that God’s “NO” answer is JUST AS GOOD as His “YES” answer.”
Again we took the house off the market for the holidays and yet again, we decided that even though we were stressed and kind of miserable, we would buck up and make the best of living in our tiny house. Clearly we were where God wanted us.
Spring 2015 rolled around and despite our winter decision, we found ourselves listing the house again.
Early March we had a personal showing of our home and around 11pm we got a text from Heather saying that the buyer was interested and wanted to make an offer. We prayed. And we were very afraid to get our hopes up. And we repeated the same thing we had learned with the first offer. “We trust that God’s “NO” answer is JUST AS GOOD as His “YES” answer.” NO MATTER WHAT.
The same night that we finalized our offer with the buyer of our home, Clint was scrolling through Facebook and saw a post by gal from high school, saying that her mother had decided to sell her house. The house we drove past all those years. Our DREAM HOUSE. I can still remember Clint sitting straight up in his recliner, and looking at me with wide, hopeful eyes.
Early March we had a personal showing of our home and around 11pm we got a text from Heather saying that the buyer was interested and wanted to make an offer. We prayed. And we were very afraid to get our hopes up. And we repeated the same thing we had learned with the first offer. “We trust that God’s “NO” answer is JUST AS GOOD as His “YES” answer.” NO MATTER WHAT.
The same night that we finalized our offer with the buyer of our home, Clint was scrolling through Facebook and saw a post by gal from high school, saying that her mother had decided to sell her house. The house we drove past all those years. Our DREAM HOUSE. I can still remember Clint sitting straight up in his recliner, and looking at me with wide, hopeful eyes.
To say my faith was small in every step of this process would be an understatement. I was too afraid to get my hopes up.
But then, after 7 years of a “NO” answer, the “YES” answers came fast and furious:
- Ric & Bennita, Jeff & Becky Gilson, family members gifting time and resources to help us get out from our old house and into the new.
- Ann Martell, who got the ball rolling in the first place.
- Rob & Heather Martell, our realtors, who went above and beyond the call of duty. They blessed us beyond measure.
- Anita, my mother-in-law, who allowed us to live in her basement for four months during the summer.
- Shanna, a fantastically talented mortgage loan officer who we trusted completely.
- The perfect timeline for all things to fall into place.
- Friends helping us to pack and move.
- And so many little things about the house itself, it would take 5 more pages to describe! Everywhere we turn, we are surprised by the thoughtfulness and care of the previous owners.
All in all, we’ve been settled in since August 2015. And I hope I never have to move.
After sharing our story a good friend of mine said, “His (God’s) fingerprints are all over this.” Others have commented about how this house was “worth the wait.” And they are correct. If we had sold our house at any other point in that 7 year span, we would not have our dream house.
I don’t write this to say that because we finally got our “Yes” answer, God is good. He is good no matter what happens or how He chooses to answer our prayers. I write this because I am grateful that He chose to give us this gift and it is my prayer that we will glorify Him with our house. I write this because I am grateful for those 7 years of “No” even when I didn’t understand and couldn’t see what He was doing. I write this because I am grateful to serve a God that I can trust no matter the answer.
After sharing our story a good friend of mine said, “His (God’s) fingerprints are all over this.” Others have commented about how this house was “worth the wait.” And they are correct. If we had sold our house at any other point in that 7 year span, we would not have our dream house.
I don’t write this to say that because we finally got our “Yes” answer, God is good. He is good no matter what happens or how He chooses to answer our prayers. I write this because I am grateful that He chose to give us this gift and it is my prayer that we will glorify Him with our house. I write this because I am grateful for those 7 years of “No” even when I didn’t understand and couldn’t see what He was doing. I write this because I am grateful to serve a God that I can trust no matter the answer.
Proverbs 3:5
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
love,
Amy
Amy