Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow

I'm a little hesitant to even write this because it just seems so unreal but ... we got a call yesterday that our offer (the most recent, lower one) on the house has been accepted. We met our realtor last night and signed papers. We have, apparently, finally been told "yes" about this house. WHAT?!?! After so many months of just waiting and waiting with no results, it's a shock to have things moving so quickly and so much in our favor! Seth and I keep looking at each other and saying, "Did we just get that house?" And until someone actually hands us the keys (supposedly on August 14), I think we're both going to have a really hard time believing it. It still feels like, "Wait, is this too good to be true? Can someone still change their mind? What if someone counter offers and they dump us? What if something goes wrong?" So there are some fears and doubts, but underneath it all is this: the deep, deep knowledge, right down to my toes, that this is how God works. I have seen it before, I will see it again, but every time it is amazing and humbling and beautiful. We often think we know what we want, what is best for us, what is the best way for something to happen. When we found this house back in February, we knew we wanted it, knew it would be perfect to get it for just below its listed price, knew that it would be perfect to move in during the spring before I got all big and awkward in late pregnancy. But God had other ideas and so we tried to be patient, but we wondered all along what he had up his sleeve. Even though I can't pretend to even begin to know about God's ways and his sleeve contents, I can at least tell you several of the specific blessings that we see about the way God has worked this out: - The price of the house is now $30k lower than what we initially offered. - The foreclosure process meant that the house was emptied of some leftover stuff that former owners had left behind including old mattresses, couch cushions in the back yard, and assorted junk. This was all removed and hauled away with no expense or effort on our part. - For some unexplained reason (and, really, to us this feels in the category of God hardening and softening Pharaoh's heart) the bank has decided to pay for the old, yucky barn to be torn down and hauled away. What? You mean we don't have to get bids and choose a contractor and pay thousands of dollars for that to be done before we're able to build a garage? - That bank also decided it was a good idea to turn on the utilities (at their expense) yesterday. When we were trying to buy the house back in Feb., we were told we'd have to have the utilities account transferred to our name, then turned on, inspected, turned off, and winterized--all at our expense. - The bedrooms of the house are on the second floor. With my upcoming c-section (in three days!), I am only allowed to go up/down stairs once a day. Our current apartment is all on one level, so I won't have to use stairs to access my bedroom, the nursery, etc., making it much easier for me to get around during recovery. I should just be about ready for stairs by the time we're able to move into the house. - We got an answer less than 24 hours after submitting our offer. This made it possible for us to sign the papers and get the ball rolling before I go into the hospital and become immobile. - We were able to spend more time living close to our friends who had their second daughter in June; if we had already lived in the house, we would have been 20 minutes away and not so able to help them out with baby sitting, errands, or last-minute watching of their toddler when the new baby needed to be induced unexpectedly. This is just the surface, I'm sure, of the ways that God is blessing us in this process. We don't deserve these blessings because of anything we've done, but this is another great reminder of how generous God is. It's easy to be greedy for what we want, convincing ourselves that we know the best way and means. But God in his graciousness will sometimes makes us wait for a blessing that is deeper and lovelier than we expected. I certainly don't want to imply that God always gives us what we want, especially material things like a nice house. But I do want to state outright that he does answer prayers and he does care about the details of our lives. I mean, it may make for some dry reading, but the book of Exodus is a great example of how God takes a personal interest in things as specific as what color of yarn is used to weave the tassel on the priest's garment or how many almond flower buds are carved into a lamp stand. I believe he cares about where we live. Our prayer all along has been that he would give us a place to live where he will be glorified in our family, our marriage, and our life as we open our home to others and grow closer to each other and him. So we believe that this house is the place where that will happen. It seems like no coincidence to us that this house is on Grace Street. As I said at the beginning, we are still having a hard time believing that this is for real. And I fully realize that it could all fall through and that we might not get the house after all. But that wouldn't change the fact that God is good, he answers prayers, and he knows what is best for us. We're just very aware of that right now and want to publicly express how thankful we are to him and how blessed we feel. Thanks to all of you who have prayed for us through this journey. We've very grateful. Next up: new baby girl!