One thing the hubs and I cannot deny, is the constant work God does to bring things to fruition in our lives. That is no different for us in the search and purchase of our first house. If anyone has doubts that God isn’t very present in daily affairs, hear our testimony of how we came to own our home…

On a particular Saturday in September, hubs and I were driving through a neighborhood we both liked in Fort Worth. Just a week prior we had made our first offer on a house and also received our very first rejection. We both were a little hurt and annoyed, but since it was early in the process, we just kept hope alive that God would provide and that we would eventually find something.

Driving around we scoped out houses we thought we might want to put on our list of options to view. We were getting tired and I was ready to call it a day so we hit the main street to exit the neighborhood. All the sudden my husband illegal u-turns in the middle of the street leaving me bewildered! “You didn’t see that?? There was a house with a for sale sign up!”.

No I hadn’t seen it, nor did I want to at this point. I was worn out. Against my wishes (lol), my husband pulls into the driveway of this rather beautiful freshly redone house! Without warning he jumps out of the car to go peek in windows. I didn’t even bother following. I yelled after him that the house probably wasn’t even available because it didn’t come up on any of my online searches (and trust me, I am an AVID searcher). I figured at that point, the house was either out of our price range or it was already in the process of being purchased which would have prevented it from popping up on Zillow.

Then something urged me to call the number on the front yard “For Sale” sign. I now understand that was The Lord leading me to go where I otherwise wouldn’t have. I called the number against my better judgement and spoke to the seller. She proceeded to tell me of all the wonderful updates, the great neighborhood, and to my complete surprise, the price…which was actually in our price range! Then she lastly mentions the reason I haven’t seen it online is because it hadn’t even been listed on the market yet! (Insert jaw drop). She planned to have it listed on the web that Monday.

I immediately got her information to our realtor and now me and the mister are all up in the windows of this random house lol!!! “I. WANT. THIS. HOUSE.” I said over and over. He did as well. We looked over as much as we could before hopping in the car discussing what to offer. “That’s our house.” hubs kept saying to me. “How do you know?” I kept asking him, to which he would respond, “I just do”.

Driving away, hubs mentions the specific offer amount he wanted to go with. He also kept mentioning how he wanted to do it in such a way to keep the transaction from even going on market. Thanks to our first house offer rejected the previous week and knowing what it would be like having to compete with other offers on this house that we really really REALLY wanted, we stayed hopeful that we could avoid that again. I, being the ever skeptic, mentioned to hubs to not be so sure it would work because it’s a buyers market and sellers might want to create bidding wars to drive up the price. Ignoring my two cents (which now I’m so glad he did), he just continued to speak that the house was ours.

We got home and chatted with our realtor who was excited we’d found something we liked and thought we should move forward quickly in order to keep it off the market. We hadn’t even discussed offer money yet and she mentions the EXACT amount my husband had mentioned to me in the car before. This is where I really started to pay attention to what was happening.

Our realtor drew up the paper work and as we read through I noticed if everything went according to plan we would just so happen to close on my birthday! We submit the offer that Sunday evening and found out Monday afternoon it had been accepted and the house kept off the market! There would be no competing offers, no other people to haggle against, just us, our realtor, and the seller.

The next order of business was to get the house inspected and appraised. During the inspection I was apprehensive because in Texas foundation problems run rampant due to our crazy weather patterns. Nothing can stop a home buying process in the tracks like foundational issues. Thankfully we got a verification that the foundation did not have any problems. Not only that, the inspection revealed no major issues at all. Aside from some minor things here and there, the home got a clean bill of health and we could move forward in the purchasing process.

Next was the appraisal. I had been doing research about appraisals and again, my concerns and worries were if the appraisal would come in lower than our offer. My hubs handled all of this like a champ and just continued to tell me the house was ours. We kept praying about it and left it in God’s hands and that helped tremendously when I would start to get antsy.

When the appraisal came back, it ended up being that EXACT number my hubs had originally offered! It wasn’t a penny higher or lower, it was EXACT. And to further drive the point not all homes get that. Some do get higher appraisals and some get lower appraisals. I wouldn’t have minded a higher appraisal either, but we were happy just the same.

It’s sad because it was well over due, but this was the point where I finally relaxed and realized God meant this house to be ours (even though my husband continued to voice this from the beginning). We still had some other things on the docket before closing and I went through it with so much more ease and confidence that The Lord would see us through to the end.

Bright and early on my birthday, October 3rd, my husband and I walked into our realtors office and came out home owners on the other side. From the very start God ordered our steps and it lead us right where we wanted to be.

It’s so fascinating for me to think that if ONE thing had gone differently…if we had found the house a day later, or waited to make an offer, or just kept driving out of the neighborhood, or I decided not to call the number on the “For Sale” sign, or just any number of things….if they had gone any differently, we might have missed out on this amazing blessing.

This had God’s fingerprints all over it. I KNOW it could only be Him because this was in similar style to how I came to meet my husband (Feel free to read the write up from 2012 in D Weddings Bridal Buzz). Thankfully God is good no matter what we do and He is faithful to the end even when we might have doubts. I’m so glad to share this testimony and I hope it encourages and blesses you :D. ‘Til next time, happy reading!