It's by Faith...

...that this mountain is going to move.

For those that know me from previous moves, you know how organized I can be. The last two moves I had the house completely unpacked in a week. When it came to making the journey to Ninevah I decided to simply "let go" and not try to control any part of the outcome. This entire move would be and has been in God's hands. With that said, God has challenged me and He is still not done with us yet. To encapsulate --

April: 

House hunting trip, 75 houses later no bites. Decision is made to build. We found a builder & land, at the right price. While we are not comfortable with the idea, we feel that this is where we are being led to.

June: 

Moving time. House in CO on the market. Still no place to live when we arrive in Fredericksburg. While on the road (literally) builder asks where we plan on residing and when we say we don't know he offers spec home that has not sold (over a yr on market) for us to rent. We (incorrectly) assume that this is confirmation that we are to build.

July: 

We are fully set-up on financing per builder & finance this is a "turn-key loan". All parties confirmed and we have it in writing.

August: 

Builder calls to find out why we haven't gone to closing on the loan since he is waiting to break ground. It is at this point the "fun" begins. Builder says this is a construction-to-perm loan. We are shocked to say the least! We are making two house payments how could he possibly think we could make THREE? Really?!! We were 30 days out where we could cancel land contract and so we took advantage of the window and canceled the entire contract.

House in CO going "stale" we change venues and try to FSBO. However, I am getting calls non-stop from Realtors begging me to give them the opportunity to sell the house. Hire new Realtor.

September: 

Confirm with Austin's job that orders were cut wrong but since fiscal year is about to end it would literally take an act of congress to fix his orders so that house buy-out can be included. Negotiations begin to allow us to return to CO and for Austin to work from home until the house in CO sells. However, we soon learn that in order for Austin to work remotely it has to be approved by "HR" and they would ask to see orders and because item was not in original orders, well we are back to "act of congress" to fix the debacle that they created.

We contact Realtor we had worked with in April and begin house search. We are looking for a fixer-upper type. Thinking that this would be honorable because the original Realtor would get a commission and the builder would make money by fixing up something for us. By going this route we would be paying what we are currently paying in house payment - due to low interest rates. So, we were thinking win-win for all parties.  Not so much...

October: 

We find a house but "sketchy" owner not providing disclosures etc. and prolonging the process to the point we back out of contract. We tried another older home and initially the owner was agreeable to a rent-to-own and then 3 days later they decide not to. We just learned a week ago it's because they had received a cash offer, which we completely understand. House search continues...more fixer-uppers, more disappointment. Please know my house in CO is not a museum however, we do have pride of ownership. It has been very disappointing to see how not-so-well maintained homes are!! I'm willing to get a fixer-upper or something that needs TLC but when the 60's & the 70's had a parteee and then the 80's came along an stuck a "band-aid" on it, that is no fixer-upper. That is a tear it down and start over :)

November: 

The first week of November builder calls and says they have a renter and pressure us for a move out date. We thought we were going to contract on the "fixer-upper" with the "sketchy" owner so we told them we had a target date but couldn't confirm until after the inspection. We thought we were good. Not so much.

Did inspection and the answers we wanted answered were not being answered. We decided to surrender and try for something else. We thought we had until the end of the year. Not so much...

We receive an email from builder that we need to be out by Dec 4th because new renters move in Dec 5th!!! HELLO!!!!! We try to talk to builder into extending us but nope. My only guess is that he is no longer making the $$$ he was trying to make with us he was a lil' bitter. The new renters had their house burnt to the ground and the builder was able to jack-up the rent because insurance company is paying for everything. So it appears to us that he wanted to get cash flow asap. Nevermind that he has another spec home on this same street that has sat empty that he could rent but instead his heart is hardened. As if that wasn't enough, let's add insult to injury shall we?

The realtor quit!! <yes, insert laugh here> This realtor found us. I became a member of a homeschooling group before moving and she called us. I never really dealt with her since I didn't want to move in the first place :) I should've screened her!!! LOL! Anyway, she'd recently gotten back into real estate. In an effort to offer grace to her, I can only assume that she forgot how hard this work really is.   I think the fact that we couldn't find a home only served to exasperate her. She told us she thought it was just too hard to find us a home and she would pray for us to find a home. She broke this news to us 12 days prior to us being homeless!!!  Mind you our financing is 100% taken care of. That is ready to go. It's been finding the house that has been the issue.

In complete exasperation we cried out to God, we wanted to be honorable with the builder since he had let us rent his home having never met us. We wanted to honor the real estate agent that we had started with and make sure she got a commission for her efforts. We were wondering why this was so hard?!! We even tried rentals. They were no better!! One house had the siding (literally) coming off and the owner wanted $1700 for rent. WOW!

We called the only realtor we know. She attends our church and just finished closing on our pastor's residence. She prayed with us and immediately started working. She called the former realtor to make sure that everything was ok. She called us back saying she'd never heard of a realtor quitting. The former realtor even told her we were "nice people" to work with, good to know!  

By 10am the next day the new Realtor was ready to rumble. We looked at three houses NONE of which were falling apart at the seams (or siding) ALL clean. One had some minor issues but overall CLEAN. The last one we saw sealed the deal. The owners are meticulous! We put an offer and like us they don't want to go back and forth. They gave us their non-negotiable price and it was perfectly agreeable with to a quick closing.

We just submitted the contract. Our inspection is complete and our goal is to go to closing by Dec 15th. All we have left is the appraisal. We have to be out of our current house by Dec 4th.  A friend gifted us a week at the Marriott with her reward points. After that, we will stay with friends until closing.

...it's by faith and the Mighty hand of God that this mountain is moving! Please continue to keep us in prayer. We still have a "mountain" in CO to move :)