We've been up in Indiana helping out family this week, and all my saved files are back home, so I won't be posting any back story this week. I want to do a much longer post on the whole story of how everything has come together for our move up here, but for now, I will share just a quick up date.
We put our house in GA on the market in November and it sat there with no offers and hardly any walk throughs until March, which is when we decided we should end our contract with our realtor and put it on the market ourselves. I was not sure about this, but I was willing to try something completely different.
In the meantime, our house in Colorado finally had sold- also in March- and so we had the money necessary for buying a home in Indiana, but we couldn't decide if we should buy and renovate or build. If we built, we would need to find somewhere to rent and those are few and far between, especially those that rent on a month by month basis, as we wouldn't want to sign a year lease.
Eventually, Keith decided that we would build. He was quite sure about this, but I confess, I was not, until he came up the stairs moments after I had prayed about it, to tell me that he had just gotten off the phone with the builder, and they were happy to put us up in one of their empty houses rent free until our house was built.
We began looking for land, and found two adjacent lots for sale. Our realtor in Indiana told us we might be able to get them for half price, because of the steep grade. They were half open, half wooded lots, which is what we wanted, so Keith headed up the next day to look at them.
It turns out the grade was too steep for building, but after looking around, Keith bought some land in a purchase deal that included a new house with everything that we needed for just what we could afford. He put down something to hold it and we planned to wait possibly months to begin construction until our house in GA sold. We thought it might take a long time, as it had just been sitting on the market.
Back in GA, we took a break from having our house show ready for a few weeks and then officially put it back up for sale by owner. We had our first open house on Saturday and one lone person showed up. He walked rapidly through the house, checked out the closets- he said his wife had sent him to be sure they were large enough- and headed right back out, telling Keith that he would be talking to his realtor.
A day later, as we were driving up to Indiana on Sunday, we received the official offer, which we accepted. If we had had to pay a realtor, we would have made no profit and possibly had to pay out of pocket. However, now we have the money we need to put in extra windows on the house we will be building. We have the money to put down and the loan secured.
I went to see the land for the first time yesterday. It's on a slight slope and in the back are woods and a small creek. It's in the same neighborhood and just a mile away from Keith's dad and step mom. We are meeting with the builders tomorrow to begin drawing up the building plan. In June, we will officially be moving to Indiana and hopefully by fall at the latest, we should be snug in the house.
Last summer, I knew we needed to move here, but the path ahead was thick with difficulties, risk and obstacles. Sometimes they piled on more than I thought we could get through. At one point, the contract to sell our house in Colorado fell through at the last moment, making void the contract we had made to buy a house in Indiana- a house we loved and that eventually sold to someone else before we were again in a position to make another offer.
When this was happening, I remember standing at the dining room table, just emotionally and physically exhausted, and looking up into the evening sky and saying to Jesus, as an act of stubborn faith, "Thank You for Your good and perfect will, and all the good things that are coming because of this."
I'm bringing you through, He assured me.
And Jesus has. He has brought us through each and every trouble and difficulty, and now I feel like we have reached a wide, open place. There is more to this story, but I must save it for later, when I have time to do it justice in terms of writing.
