We stayed our first night at our home on village square 2 years ago today… Wow, how time does fly.  Here’s how the Lord blessed us with our home….

For a long time, we really wanted to have our own house, one that we owned and could do all the stuff that we wanted with (that we could afford).  We started longing for this even more when our rental just was having too many problems and causing us some health issues as well (mold and all).  For most of our married life, houses were just way too much money and even though we really, really wanted one, it wasn’t working.  We finally gave up on obsessing and talking so much about buying houses and decided that we loved our little farm house and we would be content.

The boys were thrilled to be sleeping the first night in our new home! June 1, 2009.  Adam now says he never wants to move again.

So in 2008, home prices started really coming down.  We were encouraged by my aunt Pam at a luncheon to at least go to a real estate lender to see what our credit looked like and what kind of loan (dollar amount) we could be approved for.  So we did as suggested and it was a decent amount, but not quite enough for a home.  A few months later, home prices continued to drop and there were many more homes available that were affordable.  So we went again with a different lender and found out we were ‘pre-approved’ for a much higher amount.  It was enough for us to realistically start looking for our own home.

Our friend BJ helped showed us many, many homes throughout Fillmore.  We looked at just about everything available with four walls and even some with slightly less.  It was kind of fun and exciting at first, but then became frustrating.  Many of the good homes were just too much money and we would have not been able to keep up with payments on those, so we were forced to look at the cheaper ones of which many were bank owned, and very run down.  After looking at many houses, we finally settled on one on Village Square (two doors down from Spring’s parents).  This was really exciting and we made an offer.  We didn’t have to wait long to find out that our offer was not accepted and that someone else was going to get the house.  We were really disappointed, but knew that God closes and opens doors, so we continued to look at other houses even making an offer on a second one on B St., just to get rejected again.


As it turns out, the Village Square house somehow came back on the market.  Apparently the bank rejected all three offers made on that house and put it back up for sale and increased the price $35,000.  We were really amazed and wanted to make a second offer right away.  BJ inquired and got the impression that a first offer made it through and was about to be accepted.  So for a second time, we felt like we were going to lose out on that house on Village Square.  I couldn’t believe it because I had been so sure the first time, that was the perfect house for us.

Then again, we got another call from BJ, and apparently that offer had not been accepted, and we had another shot at the house.  We quickly decided on a very generous offer and this time the owners accepted our offer.  While this was exciting for us, it was only the first hurdle to jump over.  The previous owners accepted our offer, but because it was a short sale (bank owned partially), we had to wait for the bank to approve the deal.  This was most definitely a test of patience and faith for us.  We had to wait two months before we got any word from the bank and on Good Friday of 2009, we got the call from BJ that the bank had accepted our offer and we were headed for escrow. 

Escrow again tested our patience because it was still partially owned by the bank.  We had lots of paperwork to fill out and many more smaller hurdles to jump over, but after six weeks, we were homeowners for the very first time!  We got the keys for the house and were there tearing out tile in the kitchen that night.  The house was in shambles, but we didn’t care and were excited to start fixing it up.  We spent the next two weeks feverishly tearing apart the ceiling, flooring, kitchen and fixing everything we could so that we could move in June 1st.  We wanted to get in right away so that we did not have continue to pay rent for one house and the mortgage for the other.

As you can see lots of work left to be done when we moved in that night…. but we were home 🙂

Almost two years later, the house is still being worked on and we are told this will continue forever, but we love our home and are so blessed.  It’s been a huge adjustment since we love and still long for the country life, but we are content and feel blessed.  This was something that we wanted so bad, but until we let go of it and gave our time and attention to our relationship with Christ, it was a dead end.  After we focused on our Lord and Savior and gave the desire for the house over to Him, then he worked out all of the circumstances to that we could have the house we really wanted.  As usual with the Lord, we were given more than what we had hoped for.  The house is great and the neighbors are really good too.  God is so good!!