I am going to document here the adventure of searching for our current home, since it is quite the tale.We moved to this house, this town five months ago due to a new job. A month or so before that, we journeyed here to find a place to live. We knew that we could not leave our new town until we had found and secured a home to move into because we needed the job and had to stay somewhere come a month's time. Thus, it begins...
Some of my relatives live about an hour away, so we set up our base there while we searched. One more note, we had to rent and could not own a place for several reasons.
On the trip to their home from our old town, I called 80 (eighty, 8-0) apartment complexes or places for rent within an hour of Ricky's new workplace to find accessibility and availability. Results, four. All struck out: one was gone when we called back (within hours), one did not allow children to live there (!), one we did not qualify for, and one accessible apartment had thick carpet and narrow doorways (yeah, not too accessible after all). We went to the county's chamber of commerce, emailed all the Realtors in the county TWICE, tried Craigslist and other sites... We browsed many houses. Some smelled, some would not lease, some were out of our price range, some had mold problems, some were too inaccessible, and some were just plain scary.
We grew desperate. Time was ticking away. Then, my relatives faced a dilemma where they thought that we would be gone by a certain date and had made other plans. So, we packed up our stuff and headed to our new town, confident that something would happen. We had no where to go that day and ended up just walking around town and exploring -- with a toddler who had been forced to miss her naps every day since we had left our old home. Anyway, we passed one cute, little hole-in-the-wall deli that was currently closed, but Ricky commented that we should eat there one day for lunch.
Now, this is a complicated part involving lots of church connections (and even a missionary in Romania), but we ended up being offered to stay with a family that had a wheelchair-accessible home while we continued to house-hunt for four more days. The worldwide body of Christ at work -- YES!
After more looking, we finally found a home for rent that was not what we wanted, but we were willing to settle for it out of desperation. We asked the owner to hold it (the 'settle') for us for two days; he agreed. We had seven places to view the next day. After a few disappointments, we ended finally getting to eat lunch at the hole-in-the-wall deli. While ordering at the counter, Ricky happened to mention our house-hunting predicament. We ate and emptied our bladders. On the way out the door, the cook mentioned how she passed a 'For Rent' sign every day on her way to work. She drew a map and made it sound like an apartment. Ricky and I looked at each other and mostly negated the possibility due to the fact that I had probably already called this place. However, our next meeting got moved to later in the day, and we had time. We shrugged and drove to the cook's suggested destination, as it was not far out of the way.
It was a duplex. Small in size, so probably affordable for us. One story. Flat entryway, no steps. New, so hopefully no old-house problems. Paved parking. I told Ricky to go peer in the window and check out the flooring -- hardwood throughout (carpet is hard for me to roll on and not a viable option). Too good to be true so far... But, were the doorways wide enough for a wheelchair? We called the phone numbers on the sign many times to be let in for a showing. Left messages. This place definitely looked the best -- by a long shot.
We went to the rest of our appointments -- no luck. We went to dinner with no more options and no callbacks. We had to call about the 'settle' the next morning. We only had the evening before we had to make a decision. Tension was our air. We tried the phone numbers one last time before heading to our hosts' home and got an answer! Yes, he could meet us in thirty minutes. It was 7pm. The sun was setting, and it was growing dark (literally and figuratively). No working electricity. But from what we could see inside, we knew this was it. Affordable, no yard work, wide doorways, no odor, ten minutes from Ricky's workplace, and other things of secret interest (like a back door that I could use as an exit should there be a fire blocking the front door entrance).
We were in disbelief. The last place we looked. Our last hope. The last minute. The LORD always comes through right on time, though, doesn't He?! And, this was the day Ricky had begun to cast whatever mountain of opposition was keeping us from finding the place God had for us into the sea (Matthew 21:21)! We signed the papers. We called the owner of the 'settle' to share the news and reject his offer only to discover that he did not keep his word but sold the 'settle' while waiting to hear from us! The rest of the story is wrap up. We went back to our old town the next day with great relief and peace. Phew!
Bottom line: We knew and told everyone how confident we were that God had the exact place for us. But, discouragement kept trying to pull us down and steal our hope. Even with time running out (or so it seems) -- He is trustworthy! And, the obvious: we heard about this place from a cook after Ricky's random remark at this random restaurant that we would not have been at if it wasn't for that day of nothingness. Surely, He works through all circumstances and all things and all people!
Oh, and the church that helped us out -- that is the church God led us to join! Maybe that's why our house-hunting took such a long time, so that we could meet some of the members and make connections :)
