Sunday, May 31, 2009

Waiting.....

There is a song I've heard many times now on the radio from the Fireproof soundtrack. Right now, it really speaks to me as we wait for answers on many things and it communicates exactly what I want God to know what I'm wishing to be while I wait on his answer. My prayer tonight is that God will put thoughts like this in everyone's mind that are waiting on an answer from Him. I pray that He makes these things easy for us.


I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I'm waiting
I will serve You
While I'm waiting
I will worship
While I'm waiting
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it's not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve you while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord

Friday, May 29, 2009

Choosing

Today I'm choosing to make it a great day.

I am not immune to hardships! If you've ever spent just the littlest time with me, you know this already. I hope and pray that I handle things much differently now, then I did a year ago, or 5, or 10 and so on.

Philippians 4:4-7

Always be joyful because you belong to the Lord. I will say it again. Be joyful.Let everyone know how gentle you are. The Lord is coming soon.
Don't worry about anything. Instead, tell God about everything. Ask and pray. Give thanks to him. Then God's peace will watch over your hearts and your minds because you belong to Christ Jesus. God's peace can never be completely understood.

I don't know any other life outside of being a christian. I've always been one. I've always known God. So my feeling is.....that if I let the world weigh me down as a Christian, I am going to constantly crack under pressure. The only way to find strength is to rejoice in the good times....and the bad. Just as Paul did.

I think God calls us to rise above worry and anxiety. God tells us very clearly to pray in times of difficulty.

The pressures of this world should not make us buckle at the knees, but it should surely makes us fall to our knees in prayer.

Today, I make the choice, to rejoice with Him. Anything of this world, does not matter.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

God's Chisel

Take 9 minutes to watch it.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Trees

Again, This HOA is a bit humorous. They find out you are here and they are ready to hit ya with it.

Covenant states that you must have $500 worth of landscaping in the front yard as well as 2 trees planted. Those too....should have been planted by the builder.

Okay...so we finished out the landscaping in the front this weekend....well worth the $500.00 they are asking and there are not 1, not 2, but 3 Evergreen trees planted.

They did not state WHAT kind of tree or WHERE it had to be planted. They just said tree.

Well, she is considering the Evergreen trees a bush, not a tree. I explained, that's becuase they haven't grown yet. Give it time, they will be much larger trees. I'm just sure of it. But I know, technically, they are trees.

She laughed. I laughed. And for the second time today, I wished her well and went on my way.

You can't do much with rules like this other than laugh.

For some reason, I feel I might be on the verge of starting a great friendship with this woman. We've talked enough in one day that we're practically best friends now.

Mailboxes

Upon moving into our house we noticed we didn't have a mailbox. We let that go a couple of days. We asked a few neighbors and they said the HOA would put it up once we moved in. The first one if free, but if we run over it or break it, we pay for the next one. Yesterday, I found out that the post office was returning all of our mail because of no mailbox in front.

I've tried over and over to get in contact with the HOA but have failed.

Today, I got a call from the president of the HOA and she told me I was given the wrong information.

The builder was supposed to put up the mailbox.

I guess since the builder went bankrupt, well....He failed to put one in. So now we have to fork over the $250.00 to get one.

I just laughed. She laughed with me. I wasn't really wanting her to laugh with me....but we were both laughing. I'm sure mine was a "different" laugh than hers.

So, in my own dave ramsey fashion, I refuse to go to Tulsa to purchase one. I have googled them and found them as low as $100.00 and with chad working for FedEx...well...shipping is minimal.

SO....there....is my mailbox story.

Oh my back!

Well, I hurt the back. I think it was from planting flowers in the front yard. Didn't realize it until last night I bent over to pick something up and well....I didn't come back up. Ah....the joys of moving.

Lady is better now. She had a good night last night and I think she is getting use to it.

Everytime I make progress and get the kitchen counter cleaned off, I find another box to unpack and pile it all up again. But I've been pretty successful at unpacking about 4 boxes per day plus getting everything else organized.

I love having this problem.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Crying, crying, crying, and SHUT UP!

We brought our dog Lady to the new house last night. Oh my goodness, she cried and cried and cried all night long. About 3am we thought she may be tiring a bit, but no....she must have power napped because 30 minutes later, she was at it again. UGH! It's like having a new baby all over again. Hopefully by the next few days she will be use to her new environment and enjoy it.

We got some flowers planted yesterday and it's just really starting to feel like home. They look very pretty.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

We're in!

Well, we're in! We moved in Tuesday and the unpacking is never ending right now. Who knew we ever had so much stuff.

We are really enjoying the new house as well as all of the neighbors we have met. Everyone is just so nice and welcoming.

Night time is especially wonderful here. You can sit outside and just look up at the sky and see the stars and unlike our other house, we hear very little noise. It is so peaceful. It even smells different out here. In a good way! :o)

The kids seem to be liking it pretty well. Things are still a bit awkward as we haven't gotten any shelves up and they are still living out of their suit cases.

We got our appliances yesterday. Sadly, the refrigerator came damaged. I thought for a while we would have to wait another week for one but a couple of hours later, the delivery men returned and will just let us borrow this one until another one arrives next week.

I love my new washer and dryer. I thought at first they were broken, but....they are not. Just shows that my other washer and dryer are so old they don't include any of the standard safety features as the new ones do. Pretty funny! But it's kinda nice to have a matching set now. Not sure we've ever had that.

Being here is a little overwhelming. A bit surreal. Sometimes I just have to sit and think "do I really live here?" I wonder when all of it will sink in. I see this being our home for a very long time. I am pleased with it. I am pleased with how the purchase of it went.

The home is something so "material" in the scheme of things. I believe we all want something nice. We work hard for nice things. We sacrifice for nice things. And when it's time, I think we are rewarded for the good things we have done to show our faith in Christ. The past 9 months was very tiring trying to sell the house, live there, work, go to school, home school, and raise a family. Many times, I thought my marriage could have ended because of the amount of stress it was putting on both of us. But our bond is greater than something so material.

It wasn't until we finally gave up, stopped cleaning the house from top to bottom everyday, and trying to impress the lookers that we finally got the offer.

It wasn't a good one, but we feel good knowing that we are being able to bless someone else with a new beginning in that house. We gave up a lot, but we gained so much more than we could imagine. God is great in the way that He works. He made this happen and I learned a lot of valuable lessons.

When you go through life storing up so many treasures, you lose focus on the one thing that matters most. We we gave up on the house, the Realtors, everything, is when God came in and swept us off our feet. One day we will look back at all of it and laugh at how hard the past 9 months was. But being able to share in this experience with our kids is priceless. They learned what patience is and how we handle certain situations in life. They will learn from the mistakes we made and they will marvel at how God worked through those.

We will use this home to glorify God in every way possible. We are so thankful and grateful for all he has done for us. And if it's gone tomorrow, we'll understand. But for now, it feels really nice knowing how He walked with us in this just to see us come out on the other side with huge smiles!

Praise God!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

A New Home

Since the last posting, things have changed dramatically! We will have our new home on Tuesday the 19th!!!

I'm not sure what happened really other than saying that God did it all. I have no other explanation for it.

We got a contract....way under priced.
We countered.....buyer accepted.
Buyer ordered inspection....that didn't turn out so great.
House needs 5 piers & termite treatment. (roughly about $5500.00 that we don't have)
Shopped around, found a man that discounted the piers to $2250.
The termite inspector came BACK out and apologized and said there was no need for a treatment. ($1050.00 back in our pockets)
We then sign off on everything, and it's ready to go.
Piering starts this Monday, we close on Tuesday.
The bank for the new home, gave us the key on Friday without us even owning it.
Found out they do not handle the escrow. UH OH! Never done that before.
Good news with that is our house payment WILL NOT CHANGE from what it is right now. We will just have to pay the taxes once a year.

SOOOO....We close Tuesday morning at 10:00am and we are so excited. We cant wait for it to actually happen. Now we have been shopping for new appliances which has been really fun as we are trying to find the lowest price.

God has been so good to us. Friends have been so good to us by covering us in prayer and praying for this to be the right move. It wasn't until we totally surrendered it and gave up that it all happened. God is so good and so in control of things and He is changing our life moment by moment. God rewards those who make a choice to obey His commands. I will personally say, as a human, and as a sinner, it is not easy for me to always do the right thing, or say the right thing, or act in the right way. 2008 was so rough but I committed to Him that I would start fresh, start over, and start a new life that will glorify Him. I want to use our new home to glorify Him in whatever way is possible. If it were not for Him, I would not be blogging this today. I give God all the glory and praise as this has been totally out of MY control and I LOVE IT!!!!

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

KPC's 2009


We wrapped up a great night of praise and worship with the Kids Praise Chorus. God knew exactly what He was doing when He put this in the middle of my week! I'm so thankful!!! I am lucky to know all of them. They blessed me more than they will ever know.

Day 6 Wednesday 5-6-09

After the news we heard yesterday on the inspection, we decided it was in our best interest to put it all to the side for the next 48 hours. It has been such a relief to not think about it today. I'm still feeling pretty bad but I knocked one more final out this morning and my last one is tomorrow. I will tackle bigger things beginning on Friday.

We are really in deep prayer about this right now. We are trying so hard to hear God's message in this. The hard part in this is that the message is not what we wanted to hear. It may not be the right time to move right now. It may not be the right time for a change. It may not be in our best interest. Who knows. It's all a guess for us right now and before we react to anything, we want to firmly believe that we are basing our decisions on our total trust and faith in the Lord.

We may not get the house we want and that's okay. God may have bigger and better plans for our future. We will wait for His answer.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Bummer 5-5-09

Tentative results of the inspection revealed a couple of things. The house needs 4 piers and some termite repair. Just when I thought that I got things settled with the Owasso bank this afternoon, then we were hit with that. Boy, wasn't quite sure what to do with that information. As I explained to the realtor, this may be the end of the road for us. We do not have that kind of money, nor do we have the resources to get it fixed. We may just have to stay here for a while. A long while.

But I can tell you this, I'm letting it go. Letting God do whatever it is He needs to do in us. The next 48 hours I am not thinking about this at all. I have too much on my plate and I don't feel well. Yes it's disappointing, but I have learned to live with many of those in life. This won't be my first, or my last I'm sure.
I lift my hands at this point and give it to Him.

He knows what to do and I trust in him completely.

Day 5, Tuesday 5-5-09

Inspection Day!

We did all we could do to get the house prepared. Probably more than enough, but guess they will just have to realize that it's an older home. We'll see what they say.

We left about 8:30 this morning and went and had breakfast at Ihop. Not my favorite, but certainly is Chad's favorite. What that boy will do for an omelet!! We couldn't come home for a few hours so we decided to go grocery shopping. We drove by afterwards to still see an entire host of cars at our house. Windows open, garage open, doors open, and it just gave me a very sick feeling knowing so many people were in our house without us there. BUT....that's the nature of this.
They weren't finished so we decided to take the drive to Owasso again.

Driving by the house we would love to have was difficult. We would love to be there, but there are many factors still in the way. The final sale of this house, and the acceptance and approval of loan and contract for the new one. At this point, we still have not heard from the bank.

But...we did hear from the Owasso Realtor and well....it was good news...and not so good news. Basically it breaks down to this.....$1000.00 in fees stands between us and getting the house. We explained to her our situation and that at this point, we do not have another $1000.00 to contribute. If that is what they need, then we will have to let the house go. As difficult as it was to get those words out, it felt good to be able to be honest and not go searching for the money anywhere else. We have what we have, and are not willing to go into debt to make this happen. We want to trust God completely in this transaction.

We gave the guy who is buying our house an amazing deal so that he could start fresh. He is young, engaged to be married, and this would be their first house together. I think that's kinda sweet. But he couldn't afford anymore so we decided to help him out. Well, in doing that, it has possibly caused us to lose the house in Owasso.

Sometimes when we do things for others, we end up sacrificing something we truly love. We had no idea at the time that things would go this way with the Owasso house, but we are content with the decision we made on this one. We want someone to buy it and be happy with it. It's time for us to move on for many reasons. But it feels really good to be able to help someone else out.....just as we were when we first got married.

Next....we wait for a final answer from the bank in Owasso and we are waiting this week to hear how our inspection went. Everything at this point is resting completely on those two things.

Me....I'm totally resting in the arms of God knowing I am completely taken care of!

Day 4, Monday 5-4-09

Wow! Monday was a very long day. Good, but LONG! :o)

The inspection is Tuesday morning. We had lots to do. It's amazing how when you really want to sell something how quickly you can get moving. There are things we had not done in 7 years that we were able to accomplish all in one day. On top of the fact that I had a final and had to have time to study as well. Let's just say the day was very productive.

We were supposed to hear from the bank in Owasso, but did not. That's been their normal behavior level for us so we were not surprised. Seems that if we really want something from them, we have to initiate everything. They are in no hurry to help. But I was in no hurry to call either. I want an answer, but there are bigger things to get accomplished here instead of us getting upset with them. They will call....when they call. Because....eventually.....they have to call. Not a big deal.

The stress level since Saturday has been one that is full of ups and downs. The neat part is to see how we have handled it all. We have our tense moments, but all in all, the days and nights have been very good. That's a huge changed from 10 years ago for us. It funny how the older you get, the quicker you get over silly little things. We had a fun time laughing about that yesterday. Even in the midst of disagreeing.

Seems worrying about the inspection became less today. We came down to some final conclusions. If the inspection doesn't passes to the buyer's liking.....then we just got a free inspection on what needs to be done to the house and we are out NOTHING! Other than what we have spent to fix things here and there. But if we have to stay here, then fine. We still have a home to live in and we will continue doing so. No worries. This is not a mountain we can't climb. This is an easy one. A no brainer! It could be successful. It could be disappointing. And this may not be the right buyer, and the house in Owasso may not be for us. Only God knows what it is that we need to do and I feel very confident that HE is standing right beside us helping us through it. I LOVE THAT!!!

Monday, May 04, 2009

Day 3

Today we went up to Owasso to meet with the realtor of the house we want to purchase. Once again, we went through stacks and stacks of paperwork signing everything in hopes that tomorrow morning at 9am, the bank will say "yes".

She was very positive, but like us, she has no clue what is going on. She is trusting God and living by faith that all of this will work out for the best. I love that she is totally on our side and is looking our for our best interest. She has almost become like family to us lately. Most of all, she doesn't want to see us left without anywhere to go at the end of the month. Neither do we!

We have had to start preparing our current home for inspection. That will be Tuesday morning at 9am. Man! It's all happening so fast. You look at your house and think nothing is wrong, but in reality, you know those inspectors look in every little spot they can to find out if everything is okay. I pray that all the work and updates that we've done over the years have paid off and that they only find minimal things to fix. It's an older home, so I am sure there is something.

Trying to stay positive about all of this was a bit easier today. Probably because I had so much else going on. This is a busy week. I am praying that God takes the pain away from my kidney infection and that he helps me through the finals and that he gives me the patience to wait and not worry but to trust Him fully!

I know I do! But I just have to keep reminding myself.

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Saturday, May 2

Day 2 of houseselling/buying!

I woke up to Chad telling he he hadn't slept all night. He asked if I would have a problem going home early today and I said no. We went to the convention in the morning and headed back home at noon.

He talked about his fears and worries and how he feels that in 26 days, we'll have no where to go. We've made a deal. Although it's not really in our financial favor, it is in good favor of someone gettin a fresh start and we were okay with that.

I asked him over and over....okay...no....I begged! Please do not worry about this right now. There is nothing we can do.

As we walked around and made our purchases, it was very difficult for him to concentrate. I know those thoughts are consuming him.

We had a very nice drive home and tonight he doesn't act too worried. We've prayed about this and know God is in control of everything. God won't leave us stranded.
It is true....if something doesn't happpen, we have no where to go, but I just truly don't think that will happen.

If they won't finance us - then we don't have a house to go to.
If the inspection doesn't go well - we may not be selling.

the inspection is scheduled for Tuesday. I think it will be fine, but as with anything, there are always things that they find. Even in brand new homes. We'll just do what we can.

We've been having lots of talks lately about worry and anxiousness. The bible says: 6 Don't worry about anything. Instead, tell God about everything. Ask and pray. Give thanks to him. 7 Then God's peace will watch over your hearts and your minds because you belong to Christ Jesus. God's peace can never be completely understood.

Philippians 4:8-9 NIRV
Finally, my brothers and sisters, always think about what is true. Think about what is noble, right and pure. Think about what is lovely and worthy of respect. If anything is excellent or worthy of praise, think about those kinds of things. Do what you have learned or received or heard from me. Follow my example.
The God who gives peace will be with you.

End of day wrap up! What's the worst that can happen?

If we don't pass inspection......we can't move.
If we don't get the loan.....we can't move.
If somone gets it before us.....we just look for another.

There are so many "what if's" flying around. I say "What if we DON'T worry about it"

I serve a God that is much bigger than any problem I could ever have. I believe in praying BIG pryaers to Him just as much as the little one. I pray that he move a mountin for us. But for some reason, it feels like we are on the uphill clib to the top.

I will not worry. I will obay his commands.

If we get the house, we will praise Him.
If we lose the house, we will praise Him.

I am looking forward to see how God works in our hearts together through this.

Friday, May 1st Making the Deal

Today our realtor called and informed us the buyer has accepted our terms. We now have a contract on the house.

Not necessarily a deal we were fond of but one we made feeling okay about.
We found out that this is a young single man who is engaged to be married. Our home will be their first home. They couldn't qualify for everything on the loan, so we decided in the best interest of both parties involved, we would give more than we really wanted to.

We needed the money from the sale of our house to put up a new fence at the new house, landscape, paint, install blinds, and buy new appliances. But giving in to the amount we did would not produce enough cash for us to get all of that accomplished.

When we spoke to the realtor of the new home, she informed at the us that the new house was landscaped, they put up a privacy fence, painted, and installed custom blinds throughout the house.

Um...okay...so now we don't need ALL that extra money! Wow! What a blessing!

I called the bank (who owns the home) to inform them they will have a contract back on the new house by Monday morning, and was surprised by the answer I received.

They have now informed us that we will have to go through the entire pre-qualification process over again. Well, that's okay, but since we applied before, the rules for qualifying have changed. We are not sure what these rules are, so it leaves us not knowing anything until Monday.

For 9 months they have told us they would honor our loan, and honor the contract if we could just get a buyer for our house, and granted theirs didn't sell. Both of those thins have now happened.....but we have no guarantee.

We were in shock. We were out of town at the Homeschool convention and couldn't get any rest and found it difficult to concentrate.

Chad was so sweet. He couldn't sleep and he knew I didn't feel good so he stayed up all night worrying by himself while I laid there sleeping. I had no idea. I felt so bad for him. He was just sick about all of this.

Get Ready......Here we go!

I am going to blog this journey of the sale of our house. Some may be short, some long. But in all of this, I want to look back and remember the power of God's hand in all of this.