La Vida Loca

I can hardly believe the things I'm writing in my Prayer journal these days.  As I mentioned here, we ended 2014 with a decision not to move out to the lake and prayed for direction in where we should move (if anywhere).  Our house hit market 3 frantic weeks later and we were off to stay with my father-in-law for a little R&R and reprieve from balancing showings with naptimes and the other intricacies selling a house with 3 kids and a dog.

Those 3 weeks of prep were full of late nights, many ups and downs, and more trips to the Home Depot than I'd like to remember.  We were outbid twice on houses we loved,  including the creekside oasis that originally spurred us to step out and put our house on the market, and were even considering our circumstances as a possible opportunity to simplify and rent for a while (although with current market this option would actually cost more than our mortgage!).  As Proverbs 16:9 says "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.", steps that, in my experience, you could have never imagined.  I mean seriously I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried...

Shortly after checking out some duplexes up for rent, I got an alert from the search our realtor had set up for us indicating that the creek house was back on the market.  Not only that, but we'd just received the first offer on our house a couple of hours prior and were thus in a position to go in with no contingency this go-round.  What transpired was a couple of days worth of back and forth with some very set sellers and a realtor who may very well be at least part Cuban (being half Cuban myself I feel I'm at least partially certified to make that assessment) and apparently likes to play hardball.  I had met my match.

These interactions led to a high level of frustration as well as an evaluation of my own pride (along with coining the phrase "being Freeman'd"), coming to a head in a discussion with my wife about "winning" the negotiation, a move that would have likely resulted in us being without a house over a fraction of a percent of asking price just because I was trying to get the upper hand (might be time to re-read my I am Second post).

All said and done, we ended up with 4 offers on our house and were signing a contract less than 36hrs after it hit the market.  We're still working out details on our offer on the other house and where we might live for up to 6wks during the transition but it would be silly of us to worry about that after all that's transpired thus far.  That said, my faith makes a mustard seed look like Jupiter so part of the purpose of this post is to remind me of how blessed we've been and that there is nothing to worry about.

I quoted Prov 3:5-6 in my last post and looking back I can clearly see straight paths but they certainly didn't take an expected route. I also realized we needed to go through what we did, when we started all this we were looking for wrong stuff: floorplan,  features, upgrades etc. but through this process our hearts were opened to realize there are bigger things at play and that it's not about us and our wants but about how we fit into an ultimate plan we are only able to see glimpses of.  We're not out of the woods yet but I'm looking forward to where this adventure takes us next!