A Long Awaited Yes!

Two years ago we found a house in the town we wanted to move into. At that time we were not sure what we wanted to do with our old house. We thought we would like to keep it as a rental property. However, shortly after our offer for the new house was accepted, we changed our minds and decided to list our old house. Right away we contacted the best Real Estate Agent in the world! And got busy showing the house.

For months, lots and lots of prospective buyers came and went through the house without showing any signs of real interest…no offers were received and I began to feel weary. That’s when our wonderful and very wise Realtor told me that every no we get means we are getting closer to the final yes! I carried that thought with me and hung on to it as the line of no’s continued to get longer and longer.

Life brought many challenges to us that season. Cancer diagnosis, 2 surgeries, treatment, loss of my husband’s job, lack of contentment in my older son’s experience at his new school, coping with my own Dad’s passing and all the fallout that happened after that in my family were enough issues for me to become intensely anxious. By then, our wonderful Agent had found a better career opportunity right about the same time a dear couple needed to find a rental in the area. Therefore, we went ahead and rented the house while we waited to see where the Lord may lead us. However, not having sold the house was just another thing hanging over our heads. We did not feel free. The thought of being enslaved to a mortgage that was too high for one of us to carry individually scared us.

We began to save every extra dollar we could find on our end and then started to think we really needed to sell our old house to help us take care of the pressing mortgage…The Good Lord allowed circumstances to align in such a way that right by the time we decided to put the house in the market again, the situation in our dear friends’ lives, who were renting the house, had changed and they actually needed to move as well.

The house went on the market one more time, and I started feeling hopeful again. We staged it and it looked really REALLY cute. Who would not want to live in that house? It will sell in no time, I was sure! But our new Real Estate Agent fell into some terribly unfortunate personal circumstances and that kept her from being “in the game.” My natural impatient/pessimistic outlook on life kicked in and I began to grumble and complaint once again…I tried to counter my frustration and disappointment with the way things were…not going…by sending our Agent e-mails showing her support and telling her that I was praying for her and her situation…which was absolutely true, by the way! But I have to tell you, I was going against the grain of my very fiber…all I wanted to do was yell and scream at her for not taking care of business!

The funny thing was that people kept coming in to visit the house. We had a really good parade of showings all along…but nothing to show for at the end. No offers…no hope…

By December, the personal situation in our Agent’s life had resolved not in the best of ways, but resolved none the less. She was broken hearted, but ready to move on with life. And in January, we began to see a turn in the way things were going. Of course we had to drop the price considerably which frustrated me to no end, but the strategy was working since one cold, snowy afternoon we got a phone call that there was going to be a second showing that day…a second showing? We thought…when was the first one?? It was so out of the blue. We were thrilled with the possibilities and couldn’t help but speculate if this would be it.

The events that followed went so fast and incredibly well timed that now we just laugh at the whole thing because, without a doubt, it was absolutely a God thing.

Today, about two years after the decision to sell our old house, we look back with melancholic hearts and praise the Lord for showing us His hand throughout the whole event. I remember the anxiety-filled days, the unknowns and the “what ifs.” I remember my lack of trust and impatience. I remember my anger and frustration. And I praise God for His Faithfulness through it all. I praise Him for once again, showing me that if I only sit still and let Him do His job, everything always works out the way it is supposed to be. He showed me, one more time, in His own loving and intricate way that He knows what He is doing and that I need to relax and not doubt.

House is sold…after the long line of “no’s” God granted us His final “yes.”