Well, I haven't posted in a while. Why? Because I was moving! Finally the day came, and now I am exhausted. Just plain physically and emotionally worn out! Oh well. I have to say: it was worth it! I thought I'd tell you the story of how God brought it all together. So...sit back, relax and read. :)
It all started about 4 years ago when my family was having a garage sale. Not remembered by any member in my family, there was a family of four who came to our sale that day. When this family got back into their car, the wife said to her husband, "If we ever buy a house, this is where I'd want to live."
For about 5 years now, my family has wanted to move. We never started looking though, until about 2 years ago -- around the same time I started my discipleship group I lead. Also around this time, my mom had listened to an audio series by Otto Koning that had encouraged her to trust that God would take care of selling our house. Anyway, my sister was involved in the younger girls' group on Wednesday nights at our church. One day she invited another girl in her group to come to Bright Lights (my discipleship group). When her mom dropped her off, her mom (I'll call her Mrs. H.) came into talk to my mom for a bit. They went for a walk, and as they got home, Mrs. H. commented how beautiful our yard was. To which my mom jokingly replied, "It's for sale!". Mrs. H. said that they couldn't buy right now -- they would need to rent. My mom then quipped that it was for rent. This was the time when we started looking and looking and looking for the house that fit all of our criteria. The conversations between my mom and Mrs. H. became more serious -- they really wanted to rent our house, but we needed a place to live. Eventually, they had to move so they rented a different house. When they're lease was almost up, they again wanted to rent from us. But again, we had no where to live. So they rented another house.
In February, the H. family contacted us and told us that they were able to buy now. And since they had moved 3 times in the past year, they didn't want to move again after their lease was done at the house they were in. That is when we decided that we were going to take a step of faith and trust in God. The H. family still wanted to move into our home and we really wanted to move. So, we started making plans. We looked and looked and looked and looked some more, but to no avail. They were going to buy our house at the beginning of July, and if we still hadn't found a house, we were going to move to my grandpa's house temporarily during the summer. This situation would have been frustrating, but it would have worked for the time being.
Thankfully, the H. family said we could stay until August 1st. They would wait! Praise the Lord! In the middle of June, on a trip looking at yet more houses, we decided to swing over to one that my mom had seen and liked from the pictures online. We drove in the driveway and my parents both fell in love with it. We walked in the house and I fell in love with it. We walked in the back yard and my siblings fell in love with it. But...it was too expensive. We put in a low-ball offer, but it was reject. The time was growing closer and we still had nowhere to live.
However, we put in another offer, after which we had to have an appraisal and inspection done. After what seemed like FOREVER, we finally received news that we got the house -- 2 weeks before we needed to be out of the house! We were able to set the closing date 4 days before we sold the other house, which we were very thankful for!
On Friday, we unloaded 3 trailers with the help of a friend of ours. On Saturday, we were overwhelmed with all the help we received! 10 guys from my dad's work came to help load/unload furniture, which was extremely nice! My cousin and her husband, along with their two kids, came to help, also! We were very grateful for their help! They stayed until after supper which made time for a bit of fun, which was much needed! :)
All day Sunday, we spent the day taking boxes and taking all the last-minute/little things out of the house. We also emptied out most of the garage. And yesterday we cleaned. 3pm was the time when the house was no longer our's.
As I finished mopping the floor yesterday and went around the empty house just to make sure nothing was left behind, I couldn't help but go back through the 16 years' worth of memories (not quite 16 years, since I can't remember anything before 4 or even 5 years old, but you know what I mean.). It brought me to tears thinking that this was the last time walking through the house that has always been mine. The H. family came just as I was going through. This was no longer my house. I went through thinking about my birthday parties, sleepovers with my best friends, silly things I did in my room, walks around my block, and so much more.
So today it's unpacking and studying. I have an English Literature CLEP test coming up next week. Plus, I need to get all my boxes out of my study space to I can get a desk and actually study there! :)
In Christ,
Sierra
:)
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