We Moved ... But not where we thought we were going to!

Hello everybody!

(If you do not want to read this whole thing you can probably skip down to the last couple of paragraphs and still get the drift)

So, as some of you know for the last month or so we were in the process of buying a house! We loved the house and the neighborhood and definitely felt this was where God wanted us. So we started the process of signing contracts and writing checks and everything was going along just perfectly. We loved our realtor, our lender, the house, everything made sense, it was easy - that is until we got to our "option period" where we get the house inspected and all that. So we are about 5 days into our 10 day option period when we get a note from our realtor saying that the people selling the house, who were actually loosing money on the house, found out they had a prepayment penalty on their loan (I am telling everyone this so that if any of you are buying a house or one day might buy a house and you do not know - DO NOT get a loan with a prepayment penalty). Well since the sellers were already losing money they did not have the money to pay the prepayment penalty on the loan, and the bank was not going to give them any more money (at all EVER). So, at that point we got kind of stressed out thinking OK Lord you have to fix this, and He did and our sellers were able to borrow money from some family members to take care of the penalty. The problem got solved and we kept moving along with buying the house. Then (during the option period) the sellers had another problem with regards to money and figuring out everything on their end that they needed to do to sell the house, which got cleared up as well.

Our realtor ,being really awesome, had the title company check in with the seller's lender to make sure they could really sell the house because we felt like everything was little fishy, and that came out clear. So, we kept moving on! Then the day before our option period was over our realtor got on to the other realtor to make sure everything was absolutely OK!!! So our lovely sellers, who I really do feel very sorry for, had quite a few chances to realize they were in trouble since we were asking them all sorts of questions and making them look at their stuff. I mean you cannot assume people do not know what is going on, right? You have so assume that people can handle their own situation.

We ended the option period having crossed every t and dotted every i or so we thought! We felt that we could go a head and start packing up our apartment as we thought we were really going to buy the house. We thought we had cleared every obstable and everything seemed to a go. We packed up our apartment, called associated strong manly friends and family members to help us paint and move, transferred all utilities, cable, internet, all of that. We had everything in order, organized, and planned. We were going to move in to the house the weekend before Chris was to start an absolutely crazy two week period where he would be working 10 and 12 hour days. The Hills had everything planned out - or so we thought!

So last Tuesday May 12th - we got a lovely little email saying that our lovely sellers (who we really feel sorry for) just "realized" they had not paid their 2008 property taxes on the house and could not pay their part of the 2009 taxes. Please realize that we got this not TWO DAYS BEFORE WE WERE SET TO CLOSE ON THE HOUSE. In a normal situation we could have just reduced the price the of house and Chris and I could have paid the taxes, but since these people were already losing money and did not know what they were doing that was not possible. Our sellers had been keeping up with their payments (which is why their lender told us they were fine) but could not financially afford to go forward in order to sell the house, so their lender took over the loan which means we could not buy the house. Thankfully the sellers did not have to go into complete foreclosure (I am glad for them), but instead the house when into something called a short sell. In trying to explain this - it still does not make total sense!

So regardless of further detail Chris and I did not move into our new house :(

But, throughout this situation God has been present and has sustained us physically and emotionally. Even though this situation is not fun WE KNOW beyond every shadow of a doubt that God has a really awesome house for us some where. We know that he mobilized us into this place of transition for a reason and we did not make a mistake in hearing him, His plan was just a little different than ours. I can tell you with absolutely certainly that I would much rather buy the house God wants for us. I would much rather God save us from buying a house that was not His best for us than buy a house that I loved that God did not. So, even though it stunk I am SO SO SO grateful that God is merciful and always has our best at heart, and I am really excited to see what God does next. This is an amazing opportunity for God to get lots and lots of GLORY!

So, you might be thinking - Are Chris and Jessica living out of their cars??

No, praise the LORD we are NOT. We actually moved into my parents guest house out in Magnolia (I will post pictures) . This guest house is lovingly called The Barn and is a major upgrade from the apartment!! We more than doubled our previous living space, have all new amazing appliances, gorgeously painted rooms, and new furniture. None of which we picked out, painted, or bought! ( Thanks Mom and Dad) :)

So while we are looking for houses (again) we are living in The Barn in Magnolia - yes please feel sorry for Chris because he now has an hour drive to and from work :( - but we get to be outside, no more third story, no more scary apartment, no more small kitchen, and we get a pond to look at every morning! And - we get to use our new grill that Todd bought us ( thanks Todd :) ). Praise God that He provides!

I will keep you updated on this situation and post some pics!

Chris and I actually went on a bike ride through the neighborhood - it was every girls dream :)