Yes. Newlyweds and the roommate, it definitely wasn’t the traditional choice, but at the time it was the best choice for Luke and me.
Quite simply put, we couldn’t afford to buy anything in Omaha, so one of my best friends was kind enough to let us rent out her basement while we figured out a plan. I was so anxious to get our own place, but knew that for us to get a house, we would need a miracle… And also, some patience on my end. I always swore I would never move back to my husband's hometown. Not because I didn't like it, but because Luke and I love a challenge so moving to a place with familiarity seemed too easy. But a house listing came across my news feed the a few months ago that was just too good not to take a peek at. I let a local realtor know on Sunday and she said she’d take us on a tour on Monday. She let me know that the listing could be a great fit for us, but we would need to act fast because it was a foreclosure and that was going to sell fast. Low and behold, I found myself falling in love with the tiny house off of main street. It needed some love and care and lots of updating, but size and space wise it was perfect for a newlyweds couple and their pup. I showed it to Luke and he agreed that for the right price, it just might be worth it. We put an offer in the next day, and wrote an agreement that the bank would let us know within 24 hours. Well, anyone who knows a bank knows they don’t really care what you say, and they said they’d get back to us in three days. And as we were signing our purchase agreement, our relator let us know that another party was interested. I was crushed. I had gotten my hopes up way too fast and had picked out color schemes and layouts and furniture. I just knew that if a competing offer came in, Luke and I didn’t have the money to get in a bidding war. We prayed that if this wasn’t the house for us, God would shut it down. In my heart I said goodbye to my tiny house, but when I did, a tiny voice said, "Have faith." We had a very long wait until Friday, and unfortunately for me, I was in meetings the morning that I knew that bank would be calling us back, but as soon as I could get to my phone, I gave Luke a call. The first words out of his mouth were “The bank countered our offer and they want more money.” Unphased by the bad news I was expecting, I asked how much. They wanted just under asking price. We had already agreed our max offer would be asking price, so I told him we should take it. To my surprise, he said "Good. Because I accepted their offer already." My jaw dropped to the pavement on N Street in Lincoln. "How? What??? No? What??" was all I could manage to stutter. I couldn’t wrap my brain around the fact that we looked at a house on Monday, put an offer in Tuesday, were countered on Wednesday and by Friday it was ours, but it was! So, by incredible faith and a lot of work on God’s end, we found our first house. It’s funny because every time I think I have a better plan, He shows up. It’s been a lot of work over the past couple months, and maybe I’ll talk about that later, and it’s hard to remember to always be grateful, but really that’s all we should be. I don't know what would have happened if I had ignored the tiny voice. We probably would have made it out okay. We are never punished for making our own choices, but the fact of the matter is that there was purpose for this season of waiting after getting married. That there is a plan, and that plan is not yet complete, though we may be on the right track. There are no such things as coincidences in this life. It's all just one master plan, from one Master Being who is constantly and consistently fighting our battles for us. We just need to hold on a little bit longer. |
