The Real Story on Home Buying

After months of searching online and a few weeks of looking at houses, we found our house. We saw it hit the market and went to see it the next day at 6 p.m. We met our realtor at Steak and Shake at 11:30 that night to make an offer. We expected  a counter offer because of our low ball offer. Surprisingly, the next day we found out it was ours. Yes! Our low offer was accepted without a counter offer! Supposedly the seller is worrisome and wanted it sold. We had our home inspection a week later and were relieved to find everything was free and clear. No termites! With our mortgage stuff figured out, we are even more ecstatic. June 21st can't get here soon enough!


Well that's just a piece of the story. 


Here's the background to it all. My fear is that my words won't convey the feelings and emotion that have resided in me in the last six months. Here it goes...


For those of you who don't know, my husband is patient and I am not. I like to make things happen. This doesn't always come easy when we are trying to make life decisions. We are beginning to learn what comprise means. Our plan for the previous year was to wait out the apartment before buying a house. We didn't want to get too excited to move until we could actually make it happen. So we waited. Online searches were our best friend. Well not so much for me. I desperately wanted to walk through houses. I wanted one now. More like, yesterday. 


In January there was potential that we would start looking and I anticipated finding a place. Then there was a halt. To you it might have been nothing but to me it felt like my whole world. A rug was pulled out from underneath me. 


There was a potential job opportunity for Mark. This opportunity scared me so much I could hardly think about it let alone talk about it. It required moving across the country and leaving everything I had worked so hard for for the past 3 years. A job that fit me perfectly, friends who really care for me, a church to call home. Not to mention the hope of children soon and a house to make a home, my deepest desires.


Months of tears were shed. My Wednesday night girls group, close friends, and family stood by us in prayer and encouraged us. This was ten times harder for me than Mark. 


God did a work in me. 


I feel absolutely embarrassed to call this time in my life suffering, but my heart was broken and I had no control. Maybe that's what suffering is.





Buying a house was heavier than I expected. Not because it was about buying a house with four walls and a roof. It was about expectation, about patience, about submission.


I learned what submission as a wife meant and submission to my God. Both hard things but so rewarding. For those of you that think submission to my husband means I give up everything, that is not the case. Submission in the form of trusting him to lead our family, trusting him to listen to my needs, and trusting him for his personal submission to God.


After a few months of thinking/praying for the possible 1,000 mile transition we visited the lovely place and the door was closed. From then on, Sunday nights were the nights I begged God for a house to pop up on our website. At the same time I rolled my eyes at myself for being so selfish and materialistic. Why did it really matter anyways? 


Out of that difficult time God provided the most beautiful gift. We found a house, in Indianapolis in fact, that was the perfect fit. Everything I dreamed for. A kitchen to redo. Check. A sun room to enjoy fall nights. Check. Lots of guest rooms for people to visit. Check. I cannot help but be overwhelmed by God's love for me in even the tiny unimportant things. 


I have been made new.