Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: HOME (02/07/19)
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TITLE: More Than We Could Have Imagined | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laurie Staples
02/14/19 -
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We were forever LOOKING, but never FINDING. Our friend was showing a home in our subdivision and told his clients that, eventually (when said ranch was found), OUR house would be on the market.
Turns out, our house was exactly what they were looking for, in fact, they felt that OUR house was meant to be THEIR house. We had nowhere to go, but they made us a really good offer—surely we could trust God to find us a home?
As the closing date neared, we became more and more discouraged. Houses were selling before we even got a chance to look at them. Bob and I weren't agreeing on things and my biggest prayer had been that we'd be on the same page, that we'd both KNOW it when we found the right home. Now I wanted to take it all back. I started asking what would happen if we decided not to sell them our house after all. COULD they sue us, WOULD they sue us?
A few days before the closing, Bob was doing his usual crawl through neighborhoods looking for "For Sale" signs. He stopped in front of a ranch house with a yard full of furniture. He learned from a neighbor that the house had been sold, but that the sale had fallen through and they were planning on listing it with a realtor within the next few days.
Through pure determination, Bob was able to track down the attorney in charge of the estate and asked if we could come see it before they listed it. I wasn't enthused about the location, but I was trying to be open minded.
As soon as we walked through the door, I could envision us living there. In spite of the pungent smell of urine, smoke, and the nicotine stained walls and ceilings, I felt a strong sense of HOME. I raced ahead of Bob, practically running from room to room. I was coming up from the basement when Bob stopped me and told me that I wouldn't believe my eyes when I looked in the garage—there were actual tears in his eyes! I seriously doubted anything about a GARAGE could wow me that much, but whatever. I opened the door and there it was--a newly constructed, beautiful wheelchair ramp! The only ramp we had for Brett was a rickety, portable one we’d bought secondhand. We looked at each other and KNEW we needed to make an offer, immediately.
As I continued to walk through the house, I had little doubt in my mind that the previous owner had spent the last years of his life doing little more than smoking, urinating and installing shelves in the basement.
The "finished" basement was divided into nine rooms, most of them large closets with wall to wall shelving. And what was up with all the electrical outlets? Oh. My. Word. There are 121 outlets in the basement alone. Seriously. I counted them. We made a low ball offer; I tried to justify the offer by driving home the stench, the filth, the beyond weird basement. The attorney thought it was a ridiculously low offer and highly doubted the family would consider it, but she agreed to present it anyway and promised to get back with us the following week.
We had made a wish list of all the things we wanted. This house had ALL of them, even the piddly things way, way down on our list. I was afraid to get too excited about how insanely perfect it all was, how in awe I felt at God's perfect timing, because what if it wasn't meant to be? We didn't have to wait too long, the attorney called Bob first thing Monday morning to let us know they’d accepted our offer, they didn't even counter it.
We never want to get over the miracle of finding our home, it truly is more than we could have asked for or imagined and we are very, very thankful.
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Well written, and well done.
Thank you.
Blessings~