The House That Faith Built

(This is the first in a series of posts.)

Over two years ago, my husband and I embarked on a journey. One that had more twists, turns, and surprises than we could even imagine. Today, as I write this, I’m sitting inside a home that probably isn’t much different than yours. There is a kitchen and a dining room, a living room, and bedrooms. The basement is old. We have a front porch and a deck on the back. My husband even has a shed. On both the outside and the inside, this house doesn’t seem all that special.

However, this is the house that faith built.

It All Began With A Single Step

[bctt tweet=”All I wanted, more than anything was a home. A place to call our own. To raise our children. To make memories.” username=”hopeinthechaos”]

I can still remember the night we first talked about this – finally buying a home. It was January, a couple of years back, and I was making dinner. My husband and I were talking about bills and budgeting, all that fun stuff, when I said it.

I want to buy a house.

Now, this wasn’t the first time I had wanted to buy one. We had, many years before put a house under contract only to have the sale fall through. We looked at it as a blessing in disguise when shortly thereafter he had the opportunity to take a promotion at work. One that involved a move. Owning that particular home would have prevented this promotion, so once again we knew that not owning worked in our favor.

Over the years I had browsed the Real Estate market. Falling in love with houses that were never meant to be ours, yet never willing to give up on the dream. Willing to wait patiently and trust, even when it didn’t make sense (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Yet, here I was. Many years into our marriage, with four wonderful children, and all I wanted, more than anything was a home. A place to call our own. To raise our children. To make memories.

Putting it out there seemed terrifying – we’d been down this path. We had come close before. We had found the “perfect” home many times. Ones that I had decorated in my head, planned for, and dreamed of. Yet life had always said, “not yet,” and showed us a different path.

This time though, I was serious. As in, nothing was going to stop me, I wanted this, enough is enough. My impatience was showing, and while it wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t necessarily driven by anything more than a desire to simply build up my own house.

A Wise Woman

Proverbs happens to be one of my favorite books in the entire Bible. Filled with vast amounts of wisdom, you can find a verse or passage that speaks to just about any area or season of life. Proverbs 14:1 states, “every wise woman buildeth her house…” and I was desperate to give my family a home. A place that was ours and not just a building we lived in.

Maybe, I needed to change my own thinking. Maybe, I needed to learn a little contentment. But at that point, I couldn’t stop thinking about this theoretical place where we could pick out flooring and wall colors. Where we could mark the children’s heights year after year. Where I could create a sanctuary from the world for my family and a welcoming environment for those we welcomed in.

It wasn’t out of jealousy or envy or even pride. In fact, as I stood there that evening, telling my husband all about my crazy dreams and ideas, there was a part of me that knew we had been down this road before. And that something had always gotten in the way. There was a part of me that wondered if this truly was ever going to happen for us and I was prepared to ask God for nothing more than the ability to remain content no matter what our circumstances. For a heart willing to be a peace regardless of where we lived or who the legal owner was or the color of the walls.

We’ve Walked This Path Before

Yet, regardless of the past, my husband said ok. And we started on this crazy journey. We knew the first step was to visit with a bank and we had actually heard really good things about a local one. He set up an appointment to talk with a loan officer to see what steps we needed to take.

We were seriously shocked to find out that the only step we needed to take was to visit with a mortgage loan officer.

So we scheduled another appointment and I let myself start dreaming in ways I hadn’t in a long time. I started checking out all of the local listings, we started talking about priorities and wants versus needs. We started thinking about if we wanted to stay in the town we were in or move to a different one.

And we started gathering all of the paperwork needed to submit an application. We didn’t want anything to prevent this application process from going as smoothly as possible. So not only did we have all the paperwork they requested, we had more. We had folders and files and everything was organized in a way that we could answer any question they may have as quickly and accurately as possible.

The actual appointment was less than memorable. While we were unbelievably excited and nervous, for the loan officer, it was business as usual. She took down our information, explained all the necessary details, and gave us a lot of paperwork to take home.

A week later, we had what we wanted.

Almost.

The Devil Is In The Details

At first, the offer was so ridiculously exciting. Right there, in black and white, all the information needed to make a decision on a 30-year-loan.

Sadly, one of the details of the loan we did not like at all. And it was enough of a dislike to have us pausing and asking about other options. We were told that waiting just a mere six-months would put us in a much better position. Allow us to qualify for a loan with significantly better terms. So we made the decision to wait.

It was a really, really long six months. I still kept up with the local market. I watched as new houses came up for sale, as others had their prices reduced, and as more were sold and no longer available. At times, I was confident in our decision to wait. The terms were much better by waiting… yet it was like being so close to the end of a really long race.

The prize was almost in reach. We just had to be patient and trust in God and His timing.

The End Was So Close

Just a mere four weeks before our second appointment with a mortgage loan officer, an offer came right out of left field. One that would rock our world in so many ways. One that was not simple or easy, and certainly not a traditional route for home ownership.

About a year earlier our church happened to have a local property donated to them. It was in rough condition, previously foreclosed on, and very much an eye-sore. Neglected and falling apart, this once beautiful older home had fallen into such despair it was hard to see through it all and imagine the potential.

The church had hoped to do a couple of different things with it – and one of those things included using the property as a way to attract a youth minister. Our church is very dedicated to the youth programs we run and we really want to have a great offering for all of the children who come our way. There were plans to renovate the property, to make it liveable.

Strangely enough, just a few months earlier my husband and I had taken the position as youth leaders. Our Pastor’s wife had joked with me about us just taking the house. And I had joked back about wanting my house in yellow, yet I was never serious. There were other ways the church itself could still use this property.

This mess of a property was something that I really had no interest in.

Yet here we were, my husband and I, on a Sunday afternoon listening to our church discuss the potential of transferring ownership of the building to us. It was so surreal. I did my best to listen, yet not participate. I didn’t want to influence this decision in any way and felt it made more sense to remain silent.

It was odd really. A house I didn’t want my church initially to take on was now being discussed as a viable option for my family. A property that I thought was worthless and beyond repair, not to mention far too costly a project, was almost in my lap. And while I didn’t want to start thinking of things like wall colors and flooring, I did.

All the while, the discussion continued in my church. And then just like that, they voted.

They voted to give us the house.

Be sure to read the second post in this series by clicking here!