jet plane (part II)

(this is part two of a "should have been told a way long time ago" series. if you missed part one, you can catch up by clicking here and then come on back for this second installment.)

so we arrived home a little bit weary, but thankful we had gone. when we booked that trip, we assumed that our house would have been under contract by that point. when we booked that trip, we thought we'd have an extra day. when we booked that trip, we thought we might be making an offer... while that trip didn't look at all like we thought, and we still weren't really sure of the purpose of missing that flight in the God scheme of things, we knew we were still in that "open door" period.

it was the end of may and we had signed a listing agreement with our realtor until mid-july. that "open door" period was beginning to look a bit more like a cracked open door, but it was still not closed. and so we continued to wait.


just a few days later, we got an offer. it was low. really low. but we thought, "ok God, if you are throwing us a bone here, we want to be willing. help us to see how we can go forward with this offer."


and as the negotiations unfolded, we realized that we would loose our shirts, that our agent was going to have to throw in some stuff that we didn't think was fair (because the buyers demanded that both agents cut some expenses), and we discovered that they wanted us to engage in some unethical real estate practices. that was a closed door for us.


so sadly, we walked away from the offer. lots of people around us kept telling us that the first offer is almost always the best, but we just couldn't move forward knowing that what they wanted us to do was (on their part) not really ethical. it would have been easy to say, "well, that's on them", but neither scott or i felt like God's plan would involve that sort of compromise. we were depressed, and if i'm honest, we were also a little bit relieved. it looked like we were finally at the end of the road. we had just two weeks left on our listing agreement, we were two weeks away from our due date with poppy, and we were ready to be done with this whole ordeal.


and so we just sort of sat back and watched as a tiny crack in the door would inevitable come to a close.


and then we had a showing. turns out, it was a family that had looked at it back when we first listed. turns out, they had just sold their condo in the city. turns out the husband worked with one of scott's best friends. turns out, the wife was the sister of e's best suburban friend's dad. and as cold only happen when God is driving the boat, they made us an offer. it was low, but it was exactly $100 more than our drop-dead bottom price.


coincidence? i don't think so. i think it was more like God giving me the reassurance that my home was going to people that i could feel safe with. you see, my home in la grange was the home that i had hoped to grow old in. slowly, we were making improvements and making it a better piece of property (we bought it as-is and let me reassure you it had a long way to go), turning it from a quaint historic home into OUR home. knowing the connections that we had with these people, i felt like i could let that go. it was the way God provided for my heart.


but He didn't stop there.


the fact that the closing date worked to a tee with my delivery of poppy, the fact that the price settled on was within our assessment of reasonable (not more making us a profit, but not less leaving us without the means to buy again)... those were the ways in which we felt God provided for our needs.


notice, He didn't give us our wants (a return on our investment). for a brief moment that bummed me out, but when i really thought it through it brought a smile to my face. you see, it showed me that God cares about us so much. He cares about the intimate details in our lives and comes through for us. He does this on His time table and He does this in His way.


and while I would have loved to sell with multiple offers, above asking, when we first listed and live in a rental pad in the city just one last time before, that just wasn't in His plan for me.


in retrospect, i can see how special those last months in la grange were to me. i got to spend time with cherished friends, hang at the pool with my usual peeps, and even see one of my best friends finally move into their home just around the corner (that is its own amazing story!). i can also see how important they were for e. as we were in the midst of a lot of transition (house constantly in "showing condition", end of school, not certain if she'd be headed back to preschool or off to kindergarten, saying good-bye to beloved friends, and new baby on the way) that time in our house provided her with the stability that she needed. and never once did she have to miss her sweet little friends and go play city slicker like her momma had secretly (or not so secretly) wanted. right up until the day we left, her little life was as intact as it could be and that was a gift that we did not even know we needed until after we had departed.

i should insert that somewhere between memorial day weekend and that first offer, scott and i resumed a practice that we had neglected for a while. we began to pray together. it was beautiful and perfectly timed how suddenly, in the midst of all this unknown i could cling to my husband and to my Father each evening with a heart praise, confession and requests. and it was another one of those pivotal moments for me. each night as we held hands and went to the feet of Jesus together, i suddenly began to see that the details didn't matter. i began to have a glimpse that the details were far less important (yet still very much taken care of) than the experience God was walking us through.


you see, it became really clear to me in those moments that God cared so much about how we were doing this, rather than what we were doing. it became clear that the journey was way more important than the destination. now i believe that it is God's plan for us to be in pleasanton, but i also believe that he used this journey for far bigger things. it was used to reestablish a marital prayer life and to develop a softness that only comes when you are in the midst of a challenge. it was used to establish a complete dependence on Him and it was used as a way to gently remind me that while i may be blessed with the skill of planning (i can't help but giggle as i write that), my plan is not the plan that matters (gasp). in fact, i learned that doing life with God means laying down your plan because you know that His plan is far better than any plan you could possibly conjure up.


that's a tough one for someone who really enjoys a good plan, and i promise to elaborate on that somewhere down the road. but for now, i can simply say that for me, it is what i know to be true.