Saturday, June 11, 2016

An Amazing Story... "Have you Forgotten?"

As many of you know...Our house is on the market to sell...60 days to be exact! I have been on a journey of simplicity and order, directed by God for over a year now. It all started with a dream... {I sold my home and I got rid of 75% of what I owned. I then downsized and moved into an apartment.}

I had no idea at the time of the dream that it was actually going to come to fruition. As the days went on, everything began to open my eyes to a bigger picture. The organizing, the downsizing, the selling of our home and then the idea of moving.  It wasn't until Hayley and Jose let us know that they were expecting, that it began to finally hit me, why all of this was happening the way it was. After much prayer, we realized what our next season was.  Although, this is exciting and amazing to me...This is NOT the amazing story!

Last week I was pondering the last 60 days and fear crept into my mind. "What if we don't sell our house?", "What if I am here for months and haven't sold?", "What if the house hasn't sold and it's time for Kolby to start school?", "What if the builders continue to add houses to the market?", "I don't want to live without my kids?" and so on.

I literally wore myself out that day and couldn't put my mind to rest! I finally said, "enough is enough" and would change my mind every time those thoughts would come back. Over and over for a few days these thoughts would surface and I would have to literally choose to change my thinking.

I took it to The Lord in prayer! I had just barely finished with my prayer and I was flooded with some thoughts that came over my mind and heart.... Have you forgotten?  Then all of a sudden a memory came into my mind. Here is the story.....

It was about 5 years ago and I had a dream of living in a new place. (I guess that is how I hear fronm God on these kinds of things) Little did I know that shortly after that dream, Shay and I would both feel prompted to move and build a home in Forney. After skipping MANY stories in between, we found Devonshire. We secured our funding , picked our floor plan and signed a contract. And of course all the fun stuff that goes along with building. We were all set!

The beginning building of our home was delayed due to so much rain. In the meantime, we were also hit by a F-3 tornado ( http://heatherearljoyinthejourney.blogspot.com/2012/04/beautiful-disaster.html)  that not only destroyed the home we were renting and living in, But we also lost my car in that terrible tornado.

We tried our best to survive with one car. But after falling asleep on the way home from taking Shay to work with his crazy "middle of the night" hours...I stopped taking him to work! We were always told not to buy a car while in the midst of an already approved loan. It didn't take long to realize that one car wasn't going to work. So we reached out to our lender and explained the situation and we were given the go-ahead to buy the car. All was well again. I was so excited not to be stuck in the hotel, with no car for the summer. Although, we learned to make the best of it and have some life-changing experiences living there within those 4 walls to cherish. I was relieved to have a car again. We won't ever forget that time and the many lessons learned along with strength built.

Fast forward to the closing of our home. Thirteen days before we were set to close, I received a call from our lender that some rules had changed and because we bought the car we had to redo everything. So basically we lost the existing loan that we had. Which actually made the paperwork that our builder had nulll and void. Here we were finally about to come to the end of an exhausting year of tornado and hotel living and we lost our loan and had to redo everything! If you have ever closed on a home, you know the overwhelming feelings that I was experiencing in that moment! All I could do was cry!  I called to tell Shay and we came to the conclusion that maybe we weren't meant to have this home because of all that we had been through to make everything happen! We literally began looking at other homes.

I met with the builder and he told me I had a deadline to get another loan. It had almost been a year that had crept by with all of these delays and everything we had been through to get to this point. We So he gave me a few cards of lenders and I had 13 days to close a loan start to finish! I know you are probably thinking... Yeah right!!! That is what I thought, at first! Then I remembered a miracle in my life from the past and was reminded that with God, a righteous desire and prayer....ANYTHING was possible.

I called all the lenders and prayed about which one to use. The next day I received a phone call from my friend Ada to go to lunch. We did and while there she mentions how much she loves her lender and I asked her name. {Thinking that maybe I would use her person} Well, the name was one of the people that I had prayed about. I knew immediately that she was the one. I called her right then and there to set up an appointment. How grateful I am for these "hand of God" moments.

I give her all of our info and we begin our quest to close in 13 days. She informs me that she could do her best but that was basically an UNHEARD OF REQUEST, due to time lines of paperwork, appraisals and all that goes into closing a loan. We prayed, we fasted, we answered every call she gave, we met to give documents and signed here, signed there! Then about a week into this process...she calls me for something and makes the comment, "In all of my years of doing this, I have NEVER had a loan go so smoothly!" I remember how I felt at that moment...I was reminded that God is ALWAYS in control! So we continue to wait.

In the meantime, they did something wrong on my house and had to fix it...so the silver lining is that it bought us a little more time. God is good! {side note... This is why I handle the hard times better because I know that they are "stalling moments" while God works his miracles. And prepares us for something better.}

We get down to the wire and everything is still going along smoothly. Deadlines and appraisals were all kept in a strangely quick manner. Even my lender was surprised enough to make another comment that "we must be doing something right, cause everything was alignling so nicely" I felt that same wonderful peace. HOWEVER, very shortly after that comment... She called and told me that she was going to have to get her hands on a tax document from me. No problem, I thought! I had recently filed my taxes. So I assumed that it would be a simple phone call and email request.

So I set out to get that document. Quickly, I found at that this was not going to be easy! The IRS told me that when you file, you have to wait until it goes through their system before they can even begin to try and get the document that I was requesting. I was told there was no possible way to expedite this process. I remember feeling worried. I prayed and felt lifted that it would all work out.

So the next few days became living on the phone with the IRS or driving to their office and sitting all day to find out that it was STILL NOT IN THEIR SYSTEM! I spoke with a supervisor that said again.... there was no way to expedite this process. I just had to wait!

I didn't have much time to wait! The builder called to make sure we were on target, reminding me that if I passed this deadline that a new contract would have to be written on ouur home. The downside to that was that now that some time had passed... The price of the home had also gone up about 40k which would also make me have to start over with our lender. ALL I REMEMBER WAS OUR KNEES WERE SORE FROM ALL OF THE PRAYING WE DID!!!!

I got a call from my lender that everything was ready EXCEPT for the one document we needed from the IRS! I spent half a day waiting at the IRS office to see if I could get my hands on this document. I remember thinking... We felt impresssed to sell our home, WE DID! We felt impressed to move to Forney, WE DID! Not knowing we would be hit by a tornado a short few months after moving. We felt impressed to build in Devonshire, WE DID! Everything we did, we felt inspired to do so after prayer! So why did it all seem to be crashing now!

As the days drew closer, I cried alot and prayed alot! I remember thinking...Why would God bring us this close for things to not work out now? I remember pleading with The Lord and letting him know through prayer that if it wasn't meant to be that we would be OK! We knew a house wasn't what made our happiness! We felt impressed to discuss with our super excited kids of the possibilities of things not working out! We cried, but all of us came to the realization that we could be happy anywhere! So we went forward waiting for this ONE document from the IRS! We had 3 days....

I spent the next 2 days at the IRS office. Still NO PAPER! I called my lender and with a teary voice said, "I have done all I can do but the IRS still does not have my paper in their system"

Her reply I will never forget.... "The Tax paper? Oh I got that emailed to me yesterday"
Silence............... "What? How? What do you mean?" I said kinda loudly! "Are you serious?"

"YES", she replied! She said, "I thought you were the one who finally got someone to send it to me, so I didn't call you!"

I told her that I had been there the last two days and it still wasn't there as of today! She said, "Weird, but yes we have all we need now, so I already called your builder and told them we were on target for closing!"

I get off the phone and call the IRS.... I couldn't believe what I heard. "Mrs. Earl, we still do not have your paper and there is no way that anyone could have received it because it is not in our system yet"

I dropped to my knees as the tears just streamed down my face! I KNEW!!! I JUST KNEW!!! I knew that God's hands were all over this and that we were meant to be in this home!

I promised God that day, that I would share the miracles that I witnessed in my life from then on in a much bigger way! I also know when we pray and plead with God some times the answer is NO! Like when both of my children passed away... I pleaded with God for them to live! But the answer was NO! So I have a strong testimony of GODS WILL in our lives!

So as I just sit and wait for my house to sell.... I won't fear the "What if's" I will remember my past blessings and miracles and I will wait. I will wait for God to say...it's time! I will trust God's timing in our lives once again while we wait to see who He sends to buy the home we have loved so much!

And the punch line to the whole story.... Our lender had us an entire point lower and 5000k less brought to closing than the lender that dropped us! God is GOOD, real GOOD! So if you find yourself in this space of waiting on The Lord for something.... Just breathe, just trust, just keep filling your days with good while you wait on The Lord to work out His mighty miracles for you!

And when you doubt or forget.... Pray to be reminded of ALL of your past blessings and BELIEVE and find JOY in God's will for your life!


Until I blog again,