The Story of our Home

If you follow me on Twitter {@nnb1975} then you know mostly about how we selected our new home in Atlanta. Well, here's the ENTIRE story from start to finish ....


Y'all remember when we surprised my sister over New Years? Well, while we were there, we were bored one afternoon. We decided to go look at the vacant houses in her neighborhood to get ideas of the house we wanted to build in Florida. They do not build many 2 story houses in Florida, but I was mainly looking for trim and decor ideas, etc ... that kind of thing.

We walked thru several houses and I said to Big Daddy "If we ever moved here, THIS is my dream house" and that was it, appropriately named "The Green House". I casually walked thru the house, just one time and instantly fell in love. My sister wanted us to call and find out how much it was listed for because she was just curious. We called the realtor and she told us "That house is sold. It's closing January 21" and that was it ... although she did get us to try and make an offer on one of the other houses, just like all of my realtor friends here, she is ALWAYS on, ready to make a SALE!

Well, fast forward to end of February when we decided we would most likely be making the move to Atlanta. SO MANY things had to fall in place. Seriously fall into place. I was on my knees praying that God would protect us. I prayed for His complete and total protection over our hearts, our minds, and our finances. Big Daddy left his job on Feb 21 with absolutely NO idea when he would get paid next, his last real paycheck was Feb 15 ~ to date, we have not had to take ONE penny out of savings. I don't know HOW, but we haven't.

SO, back to the house ~ I asked our realtor to send me a list of houses that were still available in my sister's neighborhood and she did. I scanned the list, twice, and saw the Lot # of my dream house. Surely this was wrong ..... I called her and asked her about it. Nope, it wasn't a mistake. That house was indeed still available. It never closed.

I reminded Big Daddy of the house, as we had both kind of agreed on another one that was 'the house'. He was thrilled because he too loved it. Of course, the listing agent said there was a couple looking at houses that weekend and THAT one was at the top of their list. FIGURES! I prayed that if the house was meant to be ours, God would make sure it didn't sell. Honestly, at this point, I didn't even know how much it cost!

So fast forward to Monday AM ~ the house is STILL available. The couple made an offer on a different one. Big Daddy is in Atlanta and goes last Monday afternoon to look at all the houses. My Dad shows up, my Mom shows up and my sister and nieces show up. They are 'talking' me through the houses over the phone and texting me pictures. I begged Big Daddy to please go back to the 'green' house. That was THE one. BUT then everyone would go look at the other houses and get me confused. I was literally SCREAMING in the phone -- acting like QUITE the diva -- because I just KNEW we were supposed to buy THAT house. The green one.

Big Daddy wanted to sleep on it, and he and I wanted to talk about what kind of offer we wanted to make. I prayed going to bed and waking up. Asking to be led in the right direction, again, protecting us from making the wrong decision, and really asking for SPECIFIC things because I felt like I was too excited, I would miss a little red flag. I asked God to make the loan process difficult, make the house selection difficult, whatever - something BIG. But all HE did was give us confirmation that we are supposed to go to Atlanta. The house originally was not in our budget and I REFUSED to budge even $1000 on it. Don't get me wrong, this is a big house, but the market is perfect for buyers and the builder NEEDS to get rid of these houses. SO ... we decided to make a nutso offer. What was there to lose, right?

Unfortunately, I am one of those people that asks God for LOTS of signs -- I do it to all my friends too, for reassurance. My specific prayer, on Tuesday night, was this: "Lord, thank you for your provision and your guidance. As Big Daddy and I make this offer on this home, Lord, I pray that the builder will accept our offer and will not counter. Father, if this is not your will, I ask that you blatantly make it clear because my mind is clouded with excitement ... If they counter even by $1,000, God, I will take and accept this as your "no" ... so that was it.

Fast forward a WEEK! A WHOLE WEEK! I honestly didn't think about it that much. I just kept a positive attitude and BELIEVED. Big Daddy and I were shopping - at W@l-Mart of all places - and my cell phone rings. It's our agent. She called to tell me she was sorry she was JUST getting back to us, but they had received the acceptance late the night before and she just found out. I said "WHAT?" and she said "Yes, the acceptance, it was just emailed late last night" and I asked "What was the counter?" and she said ...

"There isn't one -- they accepted it as is"

I kid you not.

Y'all - I freaked OUT! I looked at Big Daddy ...and was SO thankful he was there with me, so we could share TOGETHER. I just looked at him and mouthed "We got the house!" and of course, he said "HUHN?" and so I screamed "WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!!" and we high-fived ... because that's what we do.

I thanked God all the way home. Just thanked Him for being so faithful to us and my crazy desires. I knew it wasn't impossible, but I knew I was SO excited, that I would miss something. I needed my red flag or interruption to be BIG. OBVIOUS. Well, God made it TOTALLY clear to me that HE HAS THIS!!

So that's it! Oh, I even prayed about our loan ...for God to make it DIFFICULT and hard to get {because HELLO, I work in this industry and know it is NOT like it used to be} and well, we were approved in RECORD time. Crazy. Just crazy {but thank you, Jesus}.

^{Matthew 7: 7-8 7}"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.