The Smiling Heart

Well, hello all! Things are moving pretty fast in my life right now. Daniel and I have just bought our first house!!!! It has been a whirlwind of excitement, anxiety and sheer terror it seems. *lol* We have been looking for a house halfheartedly for about a year. What I mean by that is I have looked at houses online and dreamed. I showed the nice ones to hubby and then we dreamed together. But one thing was getting in the way of that dream coming true and that was credit cards. We had 6 with balances on them and needed to get them paid off. Over the course of last year we paid off 3. I have no idea how we managed it since overtime was denied and my husband had to get a second job just to pay the bills. I scrimped and saved every dime we had and it went on a card when we had it. I started with the ones with higher interest and worked my way down the list. I also, started with ones with the lowest balance. Pretty soon we had 3 paid off and Danie’s credit score jumped from 720 to 830. Not a truly awesome score but a very nice healthy score that would benefit us greatly in getting a house. We really felt we should have all the cards paid off before we purchased a home so the plan was that we would continue to chew away at the balances on the remaining 3 credit cards this year and perhaps by the end of the year be in a better position to buy a home. We really needed to lower our cost of living though. For us, the only way to do that was to pay credit cards off or buy a home, as strange as that sounds. The mortgage would be less than the rent if we did it right. We don’t buy coffee at a coffee house, we don’t go out to eat that much due to my Celiac Disease and the pure horrific cost of it, we don’t go to the movies alot, we don’t have those loose things floating around the edge of our budget that chew away at it non-stop. We have lived strict for years now with myself not working due to health issues. We have nothing to cut to lower our cost of living other than the luxury items of internet service, cable, cell phones. We had to pay cards off or lower our monthly payment for a roof over our head to really lower our cost of living by any significant amount. I was terrified of buying a home while still holding balances on credit cards though. Then something happened. I felt a very distinctive push from a dear and beloved Father, our Father, God. I could almost hear the words being whispered in my ear “Get on with it NOW!! Too much time wasted already…. trust Me, child, I will take care of you if you’ll only let me!” And so I let go of the fears as best I could and jumped in with both feet.This wasn’t easy by any means…. but I could not ignore the push I was feeling. It was too strong and trusting my Father was the only way to answer it. I found a couple houses we loved but for one reason or another it didn’t work out to the point we could even make an offer on them. Then after looking at about 10 houses we opened the door to one and stepped right into our future. It is a lovely home! We are both very excited. It took some soul searching and it took us letting go of a few dreams for now but we found it. Let me explain, we want a nice home on acreage. We have always wanted this. We are a country girl and boy at heart and belong in the open with lots of room between neighbors. A place we can feel free. I want horses again. It has been difficult living without that special bond. I lost my horse on March 11, 2005. We were best friends for 22 years and to be quite honest I still have not mourned properly. That hole is so dark and deep I am terrified  to step into it. So I want horses again and a large vegetable garden. Daniel want’s a big wood working workshop and a small fishing pond he can visit daily to relax. Yes, we want a lot in a home and for our land. We soon realized with the loan we could get it would not happen easily. Certainly we would not have enough land to do those things that meant so much to us so we had to let some of those dreams go for the short term and lower our expectations. It was a process… one I am sure all first time home buyers go through. So we’ve made an offer and are in escrow for a home that could offer as much of what we wanted as possible  for the money we have now and we found it! =)  So I listened to Papa when He asked me to trust Him. The calls and emails come almost daily it seems saying “I need $500 for the application fee”  and “The inspector is scheduled and that will be……” and on and on. It is enough to drive a person mad really. Do I look like I’m made of money? =) Well, in fact, I am not made of money but our loving Father keeps finding ways to deliver a few hundred dollars here and there. It has been an amazing process to witness!  I can almost here His whisper in my ear, “I told you so, My child…. I want to help make your dreams happen. I love you. You had to let those dreams go and give them to Me first though.”