Last Monday, I told the story of how God
promised three different miracles so that we could escape Canadian winters.
Two of those three miracles happened before we left, but we were required to
take a step in faith and leave the country without the third miracle: The
sale of our home....
But perhaps we should start with the beginning of
the story....
Our house, situated in a desirable neighbourhood
of our local town, had been on the market for 6 months, from April to
October, the prime time for homes to see in our region. It was a lovely
house, and it was priced below market value for quick sale. We had an
excellent agent with a wonderful reputation representing us, and it was a
seller's market.
Why then, at the end of our second listing, did we
still own this house? Why hadn't it sold?
There were many theories. One that brought me a
lot of comfort early on came from a friend who surmised that the reason our
house hadn't yet sold was because the house God had for us to move into was
not yet on the market. The only problem was, we had already seen lots of
nearly-"perfect" houses on the market. But without the sale on our home, we
couldn't put an offer in on another....
Since we were planning on being away for the
Canadian winter, when our second listing ran out, we pulled the house off
the market. After all, if it didn't sell in prime season with a seller's
market, why would it sell during the winter? Besides, we weren't keen on the
idea of people going through our home while we were out of the country.
The week before the listing ran out, we had an
open house. We decided to visit other open houses while our home was being
shown, and we soon ended up in a nice home nearby. We began talking to the
agent, who, incidentally, had shown our home, and when she found out what
house we owned, she became quite interested. "My husband would LOVE your
home!" she said. When we left that open house, I called up to her, "Get your
husband to come see our house!"
The listing then closed and the house was
officially off the market.
Two weeks later, the real estate agent we had met
at the open house asked to see our home. She and her husband came a few
times, and they put an offer on our home.... Contingent upon the sale of
theirs.... By this time it was mid-November, and it was no longer a seller's
market. What chance did she have of selling her home at this time of year?
Nonetheless, I had this feeling that I needed to
start packing. My husband thought it was silly. He said no one would want to
buy a house full of packed boxes when we returned from the winter and
relisted our home. Nonetheless, I stuck to it. I tried to only pack the
things that weren't visible; but before it was all said and done, I had
packed ¾ of the house.
Meanwhile, there was no movement on the real
estate agent's house....
The week before Christmas arrived, and with it a
note from our agent. The agent who had an offer on our house had just
received an offer on hers! Praise God!
The bad news was, it was contingent upon the sale
of THEIR home!
From our perspective, there was no hope, and when
January 5 rolled around, it found us on an airplane headed to warmer
climates, resigning ourselves to the fact that when we returned, we would be
putting our house back on the market.
Throughout all this time, we had seen many
beautiful homes that would "fit" our needs very well. These, of course, all
sold. There was only one home, though, that was perfect. It had only just
come on the market when we visited it, and we were pretty sure it would be
sold before our return. Oh well.... God must know what He's doing!
It was early January, and we had only been in our
"winter" home for a week when we got the call from our real estate agent:
Our house was sold! Wait! How did that happen? It was a horrible time of
year to sell a house, and in order for ours to be sold, two others had to
sell!
But the "how" wasn't really important. We had to
get to the legistics of the thing. It was a terrible time for our house to
sell! We were out of the country for three months! How could we buy another
place? How could we pack and move while we were away? Why, God? Why now?
Imagine our delight when our buyers requested a
closing date in early April.
Well, at least we would be back in the country,
but that would leave us exactly one week to find and purchase a new home!
Imagine our delight when our agent informed us
that the "perfect" home we had seen just prior to leaving was -- NOT YET
SOLD, and the sellers of that property didn't want to MOVE UNTIL APRIL!
It would only leave us only a week to pack after
returning home, but God had already arranged that three-fourths of the
packing be done! It was totally doable! And with the electronics of our day
and age, we were able to sign all the forms via the internet, line up
movers, moving trucks and a lawyer, all from 4000 km away.
Then the bad news.... Our home didn't pass
inspection. The piping would have to be replaced with piping to code....
God came through again. We were able to line up a
plumber from afar, someone we knew and trusted to be in our home when we
were out of the country, and he promised a very reasonable price.
Unfortunately, in order to replace the piping, he
had to make numerous holes in the drywall and in one room, the entire
ceiling would have to be replaced. What now, God?
He came through again. Our real estate agent lined
up a contractor for us, someone he trusted, and the work was begun.
That's when it occurred to me that I was pretty
glad I wasn't at home at that point in time! I wouldn't have been able to
tolerate the mess! God worked everything out! He sold our house at just the
right time for the perfect house to be available for us, and He arranged for
us to be away during the construction work!
So why did we spend nine months stressing about
this move, anyway? Our Heavenly Daddy had it all under control, and His
timing was very, very perfect. We couldn't have asked for anything better. I
hope we've learned a lesson about hope through this experience....There is
ALWAYS hope in God, no matter what the nature of our trials!
In His love,
Lyn Chaffart