“We’re not getting the house.”
It was Wednesday night (3.13.19) and we were winding down in our bed. I was in the middle of a chapter of a book with plans to fall asleep when the chapter was over. When I heard Aaron say these words, I looked up mid-paragraph and saw Aaron’s expressionless face. My face, however, was not as blank as he was and I replied with raised eyebrows, “what?”
He repeated himself, and I just starred.
“You’re messing with me.” I got out.
“I’m really not!” he replied with a smirk and proceeded to show me the text message our realtor sent with the news that explained what we had heard might happen.
During an inspection, they noticed that the water pipe was broken. This wasn’t our favorite news, but it sounded like an inexpensive fix once we bought the house. Our lender would not complete our paperwork until the water had been turned on to prove it worked. When we explained the situation, they insisted they had to be able to turn on the water. We talked to HUD and asked if they would fix the pipe. No. So we asked if we could fix it. No. We asked if we could show our lender the invoice of our preferred plumber to show we’d fix it, but they could not accept that. “I’m at a loss.” Our realtor texted in the midst of his paragraph updating us on the status.
I was surprised. I put my bookmark in the middle of the chapter and set it on my nightstand. I clearly wasn’t going to be finishing this chapter tonight.
“So, just like that? We’re done.”
Aaron nodded in agreement, “we’re done.”
Despite the $2,000+ we put into the house already (inspection, appraisal, etc.), we were both calm, which I pointed out and Aaron replied, “well we can’t do anything, so God has obviously closed the door. We knocked a couple of times, and it has obviously stayed closed. I’m good.”
I fell asleep not long after, deciding to really process the news the next day. I was at peace about the door closing, but this changed things drastically and I really didn’t have the energy to stay up and ponder it.
The next morning (3.14.19) I was still at peace with the news, but I was confused. Why had God brought us this far just to close the door at the end? Had we learned what we were supposed to or was he saving us from something we cannot see? I had lots of questions but my biggest question was “what are we supposed to do now?” I also asked for a smooth finale as we wrapped up selling our current house since we definitely did not want to have any problems with that.
That day, I listened to worship music and a couple of podcasts I enjoy and the main theme in all of it was trusting God. I took that as my word for this season and have tried my best (which I have failed at times) to trust God unnervingly though this season of unknowns.
Now to get practical, this news does not mean we’re living on the streets at the end of the month. Rick and Michelle are letting us stay with them until we find something.
So there you go. No spiffy turnaround, no “but wait – there’s more!” sentence, no closure. Just an update. One that no one really wanted to read and affects everyone on different levels.
Our biggest request is that you would pray for us. We truly feel like God is giving us a clean slate and we’re not sure what we’re supposed to fill it with. So we ask for prayer that as we walk into this next season of seeking God for what we’re supposed to do and where we’re supposed to go that he would give us an abundance of wisdom and clear direction.
Thank you, friends!