Out of Control (Part 2) And Loving It!

A post about how letting God take control was THE BEST decision EVER!

Well, you may have read my last post entitled, Out of Control where I was sharing about my struggles with trusting the steering wheel of my life wholeheartedly to God and more specifically with the search for a new house.

And I asked you to pray, "for God's wisdom with our decision making over the coming weeks and months... to be trusting in Him and not being lead by our own thoughts".

To get three houses to the stage of actually making appointments to see them (and liking them) was an effort in itself, and when all three of those promising situations ended with three massive big STOP signs, I must admit, it was hard not to let disappointment and wanting to change the outcome myself creep in.

But I didn't.

I took my own advice and just kept trusting that God had something better for our family and that it would be all become clear in His timing and not mine- anyone else ever been there?

And so, I stopped waiting for the phone to ring with agents who had said they'd call and never did, or landlords saying that we could have the house rather than that other people who’d offered more money than us (even though we’d got in first) or that the people who'd quickly rented the house before we could make our decision had just changed their minds... but it just didn't happen that way.

So then last Tuesday I found out about a house (in the area we'd hoped for) that had just come on the rental market.  We went to look at it that night and besides the small yard being a complete mess, it had no kitchen, no curtains and was about half the size of the house we currently live in, I LOVED IT!  

I was even heard saying out loud that I was happy to pay the advertised amount per month (to Dave's distress).  Dave on the other hand was hoping for a cheaper price but the agent assured us that the owner would definitely not negotiate on price because once the house was all fixed up with a kitchen installed, curtains etc that they were going to put the rental price up higher!  

Well, thankfully, Dave agreed that we should still proceed with the necessary steps to renting the house.  And that was when the fun began...

About thirty minutes after saying to the agent that we wanted to move ahead, she called us back and told us that the owner would lower the rental amount and it was the exact amount that Dave and I had privately discussed that we’d “ideally” like to pay!!

The next time we went to look at the house, the owner wanted to meet us there.  Long story cut short, here’s what transpired:

• We found out that the house owners are a lovely couple who live in the street and have two kids, Eli and Tobi’s ages.
• The owners are putting in a gas stove top (no oven though), a new refrigerator and some cupboards.
• The owners also said they’d put hot water in the kitchen (something I have not had for over two and a half years…) This was when I started to feel REALLY SPOILT.
• The owners are also getting the small yard area cleaned up and putting lawn down.  They had some large tree stumps removed and now it’s big enough to put our kid’s swing set there (we’d told our children that we couldn’t take their swings to our new house and they’d been brainstorming who they could give them to).
• The owner was about to order curtains and gave me the fabric samples and told me that I COULD CHOOSE to make sure that I liked them- what?
• The ZOE missionaries offered to come and help us move (this Saturday…) Did I mention that just 11 days after calling up about this house we are moving in?? How quick was that? But then we decided to just get a quote from a removal company incase- just to see how much it would be (we’d been told by many people it was really expensive) and the quote came back really reasonable!
• Then… now get this… someone put the money into our bank account to pay for the moving company!!   How good is God, right?

Now just to finish off this post about our whirlwind of a week.  You might think that I’d be feeling slightly stressed out about packing our house up in 11 days total, however, I am just feeling so remarkably blessed right now.  Seriously, it’s all good.

And the funny thing is that all week Dave and I have been reflecting on just how God’s plans for us are so much better than the plans we make for ourselves.  How He knew all along what we needed and how He wanted to orchestrate these events to show us His amazing love.

And then tonight, Dave’s phone starts ringing and it’s the owner of the first house we'd look at (a house shop we really wanted to rent) … that we thought we had agreed to, until someone else came in and offered more money than us and he decided to rent it to them…

And he tells Dave that the deal with the other person has fallen through and that the house is available again now and asked did we want it.

And we got to see… the comparison between what we would’ve chosen and settled for and God’s wonderful, amazing alternative!

And we both looked at each other just knowing how good it felt being out of control and knowing that the One who knows us better than we know ourselves always has a GREAT plan for us.