Moving

I have really seen answered pray! Two years ago, we tried to sell our house to move closer to the Christian school and church our family attended. After a total of 8 months on the market and over 30 showings we took the for sale sign down. We didn't understand why our house did not sell. Since then it has become so clear. Issues arose at our church which caused us to take a deeper look at the church and the Christian school supported by the church. We had always prayed that God would lead us to the place He wanted us. We found ourselves being drawn back to the church we had left several years ago and the Christian school that our sons had attended back then. We prayed that God would open doors for us if that is where He wanted us to be. In the mean time, exactly one year after we took our house off the market, my husband noticed a house for sale that was quite close to the "old" school. We attended an open house and did not like it! It had a leak in the ceiling and smelled awful and needed so much work inside and out. I said that they needed to drop the price $50,000 and my husband said "more like 75,000 to $100,000". So we crossed it off the list. Over the next few months our son was accepted into his old school and we started attending our old church. We were warmly welcomed. We had left the church in search of greener pastures...a larger youth group and congregation. Through a whirlwind of events God showed us what is most important: A church that is seeking to do God's will, not just keep up with the times. If a church is seeking God first, all the other things will fall into place. If a youth group is created for the pupose of teaching teens to walk with God through out life and get to know Him more intimately....then God will bless that group! Well, Ave now attends a group of only 10 or so kids but it is such a blessing. The youth leader has such a passion for leading the kids to Christ and showing them how to walk with God. He communicates this passion to the parents. I had prayed for a youth leader like this since Ave was 8. My husband and I wish we had just stayed put but I guess God did allow us to learn a lot through our journey. Since we were staying in Anderson, we decided to start looking for a home with more land. I had grown up in a small town and really missed the woods and natural setting that I had grown up with. We found several homes but they were never quite right. Finally in the summer, I looked on the MLS at the house we had toured in Feb. It had dropped $50,000! I told my husband that we had to look again. He wasn't convinced. A few weeks later it dropped 70,000 from when we first toured it. The home had become a "short sale".Needless to say we ended up going through it again putting in an offer and getting money for repairs. A total of between $75,000 and $100,000 less than the price back in February. This all happened in July. We didn't even have our house for sale so we put it up by owner but didn't print any info or advertise in the paper because we wanted to make some repairs to the other house first. We knew that my husband made enough to cover both mortgages but prayed all along that if God didn't want this to happen that He would close the door. We were quite nervous with the 2 houses and repair work needed,etc. We tried to find every reason to back out of the deal and everytime we had questions or hesitations, God came through amazingly. One example is that we were worried about the septic system, because we had no records on it and the inspector said that the repairs could cost up to $15000. I picked up the phone book and called the first septic service company I saw. Turns out that was the company the previous owner had used and the lady on the phone read me the entire service report for the past 10 years. THis is only one small piece. I saw how as I gave my worries and anxiety over to God He comforted me. I knew that we were supposed to be here so I stopped worrying about selling our other house. We prayed daily for the right buyer to come along and love our old house. As I mentioned we didn't even put info out. Shortly after we finished some major repairs to the new house a lady started calling to see the old house. We were so busy we didn't even return her call for a week. She kept calling. Finally she came through two times in one day and put in an offer the next. In less than a month we closed. This is during the time that houses are not selling. I have no doubt that God wanted us here. I know that we are right where He wants us. To make it clearer He even added confirmation. Two weeks ago I was out talking to my new neighbor about the election. She said "Pray about it. You know prayer works...that is how we got you here". She went on to tell me how a while back she and her husband had started praying for a family like ours to move in. God has shown me how to depend on Him. He has shown me to lean on Him and give my worries over to Him. If our house had sold two years ago, our family would be miserable. We didn't know that at the time but God did.