It's about the house. Is it a rental? Is it for sale? Is it the one we're living in? Are we moving? What IS going on with those crazy Shaffers and their housing?
When Ryan and I got married, we each owned a house. In fact, we'd each lived in our houses for almost exactly the same amount of time and had invested a lot of time, blood, sweat, tears, and personality in them.
My house is more centrally located to our two jobs, so we decided to make mine our official residence. So after we got married, Ryan moved all his stuff over my way, and we merged our two households.
We put his house on the market (ourselves...not through a realtor) and prayed for a speedy sale so we didn't have to continue to be a two-household...household. A family came along right away and fell in love with the place. They loved everything about it and wanted it to be their home. They weren't in a position to purchase right away but wanted to buy it.
Because they loved the house so much and wanted to move toward buying, we allowed them to move in and rent for a few months while they saved up to buy. And then we went home and prayed hard for God to work out all the financial details for the sale to move quickly so we could move on with our lives.
In a very abbreviated version of the story...a year later...the sale didn't work out. They were disappointed...we were disappointed...and here we sit, one year later, with the house still on our hands. We've been working very hard {as you might have noticed in the Sunday posts} to clean up the house, repair the things that were broken, and be ready to put it on the market right away and again...to begin praying that it will sell quickly.
It's been quite a faith-journey for us. As is always the case when you pray fervently for something and it doesn't take place, we've done our fair share of question-asking, crying {okay that part was more me than Ryan}, struggling through anger, and more.
To be truthful with you, I have no idea what God is trying to teach us on this journey...I just sure hope I don't miss the lesson in the end. I reminded Ryan that when I began working at the station, I put my house on the market and it sat there for a year and a half...and I prayed...begged...for God to sell it. I asked you to pray - and many of you prayed along with me for the sale of that house. And in the end, if it had sold in my timing, I doubt Ryan and I ever would have started dating. So I believe God's no led to His yes in our relationship.
So perhaps this delay in sale, while wildly frustrating for us, is part of something else...something bigger...something purposeful...that God is doing that we can't even see.
But if you're a praying soul, we'd welcome your prayers as we meet with the realtor this week and place the house on the market...that God would hold us steady beside Him as we wait for it to sell...that we wouldn't miss lessons He has to teach...that the right buyer, who will love and cherish that house as Ryan did for so many years, will come along and make it his or her home...and that {this is our selfish side talking} it would sell quickly so we could move on as a ONE HOME family.
Meanwhile: a few pictures from our journey of keeping this house....
From dating to fixing to cleaning...we've had a journey with this little house. Anxious to see where God leads us in this part of our life!
4 comments:
Oh wow, so much work. Hope it pays off for you soon!!
We do too!! Every time he goes over there - he finds more work to do! :)
I am praying that the right buyers will find your house soon. I am guessing that selling a house is as stressful as buying a house so I will pray for a stressless process for you as well.
We both have peace that God will sell it in the right time to the right person - but MAN is it ever hard to wait for that!!
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