This is part two- if you are new here, go back and read “worth the wait” and then come catch up!
If you’ve walked through hard seasons of life, which I’m sure you have, you can relate to in your own way the feeling I expressed in the first post. The one where it feels like it will never end. You wonder what God is doing. You cling to songs like “You’ve Already Won” where some of the lyrics are: Don’t know what You’re doing, but I know what You’ve done, I’m fighting a battle, You’ve already won.
In all of life wrestlings, struggles, hardships, and disappointments, Greg would continually remind me there was light at the end of the tunnel. He would remind me God had a house for us somewhere, we just needed to keep doing our part and continue to pray over it. Y’all. We had been praying since we moved to NC for a home. When each door would get slammed shut, it started to feel defeating. It was this vicious cycle of: find a house, dream about the house, (if we had a chance) go look at the house, decide if wanted to make an offer on the house, and then either the house would go pending in less than a day, or our offer was turned down. The former happened more than the latter. Then I’d cry, say are we destined to rent forever, mope around for the day, wake up the next morning and keep looking on Zillow. I was basically a full time real estate agent!
A lot happened in just a short time, and truly it has all been God. We give Him praise and thanks for what He alone has done. This season has now felt like grace upon grace. When God moves, nothing can stand in the way.
grace
I don’t know that I have shared much on here about my health struggles outside of the anxiety I was dealing with. For many years, I have just not felt normal. I’m sure having 5 children in 5 years had something to do with that! I decided it was time to get some bloodwork done and try to get well. After months of trying supplements recommended by NP and not feeling any better, one day Greg said to me, “I thought all of these supplements were supposed to be helping you.” I cried. Not because of what he said, but because of the truth in the statement. I was in a place of desperation. I have long connected with the story in the Bible of the woman with the issue of blood. She had spent all her money on physicians, and in the gospel of Mark it says “and was no better but rather grew worse.”
I feel that to my core, even though my issues were different. I didn’t deal with some difficulties like others have with serious or chronic illness, but if you have ever not felt good for an extended period of time, you just want to feel normal again. That’s where I had been for a long time. I would often pray for the Lord to just heal whatever was wrong with my body so I didn’t need to nap every day, so I could homeschool my children better, all the things.
Back in July, an NP friend from Georgia texted me one day and told me she had been introduced to a company who made supplements that were formulated by naturopathic doctors and they actually worked. I talked to Greg about it, from that place of desperation- I’m already spending money on things that don’t work, what if I spent money on things that did work!? He agreed and I have joked that next to Jesus, this has changed my life. This is one of the first graces towards me in this season- regaining my health, feeling good, not needing a nap, and having energy to be a mom! We all know that’s a full time job. *disclaimer- I am a Brand Partner with Bravenly because they really are that good. Should you purchase through my site, I do make commission. I always want to be upfront- and also don’t ever want to promote something I don’t believe in!*
upon grace
As I told you, our search for a home felt completely defeating. We had looked at 3 houses back to back where the door was shut for us. Even though it was hard, we were doing our best to trust the Lord in the process. We had come home from community day, had dinner, and then I hopped onto Zillow. There was nothing new, so I shut my laptop, completely discouraged. Maybe 15 minutes later, I get a notification from Zillow on my phone. A new home has come on the market. I get back on Zillow, look at the house, show Greg, and say, “You wanna go look at it?” To which he responds with a big sigh. Five minutes after that, I get a text from our realtor’s wife with the link to this house! I told Greg it was a sign. He said we could go look if I wanted to… and I did. So we went the following day.
Long story made longer, we made an offer on the house with an FHA loan on Thursday. They came back and officially said they would not accept an FHA loan on Friday. Once again, we just felt defeated. We really like this home and so we prayed some more. We asked the Lord if this was a clear no, a shut door, to make that clear to us. If we needed to get creative to do a Conventional loan, that He would show us that to. What I didn’t know is that Greg prayed two specific prayers: to stay where we serve (he’s the worship pastor at our church) and that the Lord would put it on someone’s heart to help us. Conventional required more cash up front that we didn’t have. We had decided to wait until Monday- if it was still on the market we’d figure out a way to make another offer.
Saturday, I came home from having breakfast with a friend and Greg was on the phone with our realtor. I could tell he had good news, but had no idea what he was about to tell me. He gets off the phone and looks at me, and I just start crying. He said, “God sure did answer our prayers quickly.” Someone had called our realtor to ask about our situation and offered to help. We went back to look at the house on Sunday night and decided to put another offer in on Monday. We signed more papers on Monday and they accepted our offer!
It has been amazing to see the way God’s hand has been on this home for us. Things aren’t perfect with this home, but it’s nothing that scares us. I started packing prior to inspection and Greg made the comment that he sure hopes it passes! I told him I knew it would, that I believed God’s hand was on this house and we didn’t need to worry about it. Was I right? Maybe… 😉 We are set to close at the end of October. Best. Birthday. Gift. Ever!!!
I’m looking at my word count and once again… I’m pushing it. There will just need to be a part three to all that God has done. You don’t want to miss the next one. It still blows my mind that it could get better than all that I’ve already shared with you! I hope you will join me for part three.
