For so long I've just been anxious to get to Indiana. It seemed like for such a long time we were in the process to get there that it wasn't really real. We had to finish remodeling our basement, then we had to wait for our house to sell. Once it finally did sell, we had an unusually long wait to close so we had to wait to look for a house and then still had 6 weeks until closing after we had an accepted contract. It just seems like we've been in the process for a really long time. Well, I guess it has been over a year, so that is a long time. As of today, we close on both houses two weeks from tomorrow and move to Indiana just two days after that. What's that? Like 16 days! I can hardly believe it's that close!
During The Process, as I'm terming it, all my focus was on Indiana, what we're missing over there. We've missed a lot of the start-up meetings, several sneak peaks and really a lot of the foundation building of SCC. It's been hard to miss all of that. I'm also super-excited to live near my family. We probably talk about moving near Autie Kim every day! Every once in awhile I would think about what we're leaving, but it really wasn't a main focus. I knew it would be hard, but I figured I would be so excited to finally be getting to Indiana that it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Man was I wrong. Leaving things here is a huge deal! Church is especially hard. We've been at Bridgeway for 6 1/2 years now. We love it there. We have grown so much since being there. It's also where we met our dearest friends here, our lifegroup. These couples have been integrated into our lives for the past 3 years or so. We have gone through so much with them and love them all dearly.
It's hard to live in this moment. We're so excited to finally being getting to Indiana. We're also extremely saddened to be saying goodbye to everything here. One thing Pastor Dale said to me on Sunday was that it was ok to grieve. It's ok to be sad. Just because we have this amazing call of God on our life doesn't mean that there are not going to be sad moments.
So, I'm trying to prepare myself for the next two weeks. I'm sure I'm going to be a mess at church both Sundays. Doug and Austin have threatened to sit in the back row far away from me. I think I'll pack lots of tissue and cherish the moment. I know I'm going to cry, but that's ok. I am leaving some of my closest friends. The good news is, is that once I say goodbye here, I'll be saying hello to some very dear friends in Indiana in addition to my mom and sister! The other good news is that we are not terribly far away, so I am expecting lots of visits from our friends from here!
Next step, packing....Ugh!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Waiting, Hoping and Praying
Well, it's been about a month since I've posted. So much has happened in that month. I've been putting off updating just because of all the problems we've had. I've just been scared that we're not even going to get the house we have been so excited about. As of now, all looks good. I decided that it's really showing a lack of faith if I don't document our journey and really just claim that house as ours. Even if something would happen at this point, I still want to document our experience. The truth of the matter is that God's hand is in this. Even if we don't get the house, I know He has a path and plan for us, no matter what that path and plan may look like. So, here's the long, drawn out story of our house...
The second day of house hunting was just as fun as the first. After the two days, I basically had it narrowed down to two that were my favorites. Doug drove up Tuesday morning and we were able to go back for a 2nd look of my top 6. Conveniently, Doug's two favorites were the same as mine. Not so conveniently, my top favorite was the opposite of his. We were meeting with Shannon, our Realtor, on Wednesday morning to make an offer on one of the houses, so we had to decide which we wanted to offer on. We ended up making a pros and cons list of each house. We ended up going with my favorite. I was just so excited with how the basement would look once we got it finished. We put our offer in, it was a little low, but we felt it was fair. The house was just very outdated and would need a lot of cosmetic work. It was an older couple that owned the house and they really felt their house was worth more than we did. After much negotiation, we gave them our final offer late Wednesday night. It was $1,500 less than what their prior counter was. We went to bed, just a little frustrated that everything wasn't settled. I woke up in the middle of the night with my mind racing over our two top choices for a house. After rethinking it, I decided I didn't want the house we had offered on, I wanted the house on Peach! I was so worried about what to do. We had submitted an offer that was just $1,500 off of what they had wanted. I mean, who would turn down an offer of $1,500! I woke up in the morning and was rethinking everything all over again. I just wanted to be sure this time! I decided that I really did want the house on Peach and our only chance was to call Shannon and tell her to revoke our offer and pull the covenants on Peach. I tapped Doug on the shoulder and was like "Honey, do you think we should call Shannon and have her hold off on our offer until we can see the covenants on Peach?" He said, "Yeah, sure" and immediately my phone rang. It was Shannon saying the other people had rejected our offer. I was giddy. I just knew it was God working. We found out later that their Realtor had offered to lower her commission by $600 if they would take the offer and they still wouldn't take it. So, they turned down an offer over $900 and their house had basically been on the market for almost a year. There is no explanation for that except God did not want us to have that house. We met Shannon later that morning to make an offer on Peach. We offered $5,000 less than asking with an additional $3,000 in closing cost assistance. Unbelievably, she accepted our first offer. Again, it can only be God!
We got home and turned all our paperwork in to Quicken loans. I wasn't sure how everything was going to work since we're buying a home in Indiana yet Doug's job is in Illinois. I had called Quicken back in June and told them our situation and they said it wasn't a problem. Imagine my surprise when they then denied us our loan because of that very reason. Here we were with this amazing house and no loan. Doug and I immediately started calling other banks trying to find a loan. I figured if Quicken wouldn't approve us, then no one would. I even started looking up rental houses. I got to the point where I just had to leave it in God's hands. I know God wants us in Indiana and I know He has a plan to get us there. If it wasn't buying a house, then He would show us the path we needed to take. Thankfully, we found a bank that will give us a loan.
So, as of now, we have a loan. The appraisal for Peach came in over $10,000 over selling price, so we're good there. We've had some issues with our house, but almost $1,000 later, it's all fixed. Our appraisal here is Monday. So, it appears that we are on track for a January 31st closing date. I really still have my doubts. But what I finally had to do was take a look at how God has shown us His will over the past year. During that years time, we have continually looked at houses and have never once felt God telling us a different way. I can see God's hand in the house we now have a contract on, He blocked the first house we offered on so that we could get this house. I just started claiming this house as ours. God gave us this house and satan is not allowed to take it from us!
The second day of house hunting was just as fun as the first. After the two days, I basically had it narrowed down to two that were my favorites. Doug drove up Tuesday morning and we were able to go back for a 2nd look of my top 6. Conveniently, Doug's two favorites were the same as mine. Not so conveniently, my top favorite was the opposite of his. We were meeting with Shannon, our Realtor, on Wednesday morning to make an offer on one of the houses, so we had to decide which we wanted to offer on. We ended up making a pros and cons list of each house. We ended up going with my favorite. I was just so excited with how the basement would look once we got it finished. We put our offer in, it was a little low, but we felt it was fair. The house was just very outdated and would need a lot of cosmetic work. It was an older couple that owned the house and they really felt their house was worth more than we did. After much negotiation, we gave them our final offer late Wednesday night. It was $1,500 less than what their prior counter was. We went to bed, just a little frustrated that everything wasn't settled. I woke up in the middle of the night with my mind racing over our two top choices for a house. After rethinking it, I decided I didn't want the house we had offered on, I wanted the house on Peach! I was so worried about what to do. We had submitted an offer that was just $1,500 off of what they had wanted. I mean, who would turn down an offer of $1,500! I woke up in the morning and was rethinking everything all over again. I just wanted to be sure this time! I decided that I really did want the house on Peach and our only chance was to call Shannon and tell her to revoke our offer and pull the covenants on Peach. I tapped Doug on the shoulder and was like "Honey, do you think we should call Shannon and have her hold off on our offer until we can see the covenants on Peach?" He said, "Yeah, sure" and immediately my phone rang. It was Shannon saying the other people had rejected our offer. I was giddy. I just knew it was God working. We found out later that their Realtor had offered to lower her commission by $600 if they would take the offer and they still wouldn't take it. So, they turned down an offer over $900 and their house had basically been on the market for almost a year. There is no explanation for that except God did not want us to have that house. We met Shannon later that morning to make an offer on Peach. We offered $5,000 less than asking with an additional $3,000 in closing cost assistance. Unbelievably, she accepted our first offer. Again, it can only be God!
We got home and turned all our paperwork in to Quicken loans. I wasn't sure how everything was going to work since we're buying a home in Indiana yet Doug's job is in Illinois. I had called Quicken back in June and told them our situation and they said it wasn't a problem. Imagine my surprise when they then denied us our loan because of that very reason. Here we were with this amazing house and no loan. Doug and I immediately started calling other banks trying to find a loan. I figured if Quicken wouldn't approve us, then no one would. I even started looking up rental houses. I got to the point where I just had to leave it in God's hands. I know God wants us in Indiana and I know He has a plan to get us there. If it wasn't buying a house, then He would show us the path we needed to take. Thankfully, we found a bank that will give us a loan.
So, as of now, we have a loan. The appraisal for Peach came in over $10,000 over selling price, so we're good there. We've had some issues with our house, but almost $1,000 later, it's all fixed. Our appraisal here is Monday. So, it appears that we are on track for a January 31st closing date. I really still have my doubts. But what I finally had to do was take a look at how God has shown us His will over the past year. During that years time, we have continually looked at houses and have never once felt God telling us a different way. I can see God's hand in the house we now have a contract on, He blocked the first house we offered on so that we could get this house. I just started claiming this house as ours. God gave us this house and satan is not allowed to take it from us!
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