It's His time, not mine

So most of you that read my blog know that we recently moved into a new house. What most of you don't know are all the "little" things that made it happen for us.

The whole process really started over two years ago when we toyed with the idea of moving. After dreaming and searching homes online, we decided it just wasn't our time yet. Last September we decided that we were ready to get out of our neighborhood before it went downhill. Now but let me say this first....we lived in a great neighborhood, but sometimes you get neighbors that you don't love, or their pets, or they don't take care of their yards, etc. etc. Well on our street, it was starting to look a little sad, so we decided to try and get out before it goes too far downhill.

Now for the next "problem." The $$$. That is always an issue when you are trying to get a new home. Well for us, we felt comfortable with our house payments and felt like we didn't have to miss out on things due to not having the money. We could go visit family, or buy something new without too much remorse. Johnny had been promoted to his new position in March 2010 and it was now September and still haven't heard anything about a pay increase. Well, this doesn't make the decision on buying a new home very easy.

We found a builder right next to our new Stake building, where we decided we were going to build our new home. We loved the area, the wards, the stake, the neighborhood, and we felt we could afford on our budget at the time. Sounds prefect.

So now you know all the background. Now we had to exercise a little faith, and try to sell our house.

On the market we went on October 1st. We had tons of showings and even had an offer the second week. They wanted us to basically give our house away so we said "take a hike" to them and kept trying.

Now for the snag #1 in our plan....We decided on a floor plan, put down some earnest money and picked a lot to build on. Then the builder didn't want us to build there because there would be 4 houses in a row that would look the same. Well, honestly it was the best lot at the time that they had, so we were pretty adamant that we were staying put or not building at all. They finally caved and let us have our way.

So back to selling our house. Things slowed down on the showings but we still had a few. Then came snag #2....some other buyer came and took our lot out from underneath us. How? Well to make a long story short, there is a bump clause in the contract and we got bumped. So then we thought, well I guess the Lord is telling us it is not meant to be over here.

November came and went, and Johnny finally got the raise that was promised....and we were told one percentage of increase and then when we actually got the paycheck, it was almost double what he was told. This made part of our plan a little easier because now, we for sure knew what we could afford.

We left for Christmas in Reno and on our drive we got an offer on the house. We were ecstatic to finally sell it and start looking for our new home. When we got back home, we started our search. We looked at probably 10 or more homes. We found one we loved, but it was far from work and family, so we decided to hold off for awhile on that one. Then our realtor brought us back to our original builder and showed us two of their speck homes they had. We of course were in love at first sight. There was one built of our original floor plan, but then the other one was the one we really did want, but thought we couldn't afford a few months earlier. But now with the raise we felt like we could afford this house that we loved and so we went for it.

The house had been done for over 5 months and they said they were so surprised it hadn't sold sooner. In my mind I was thinking, "because the Lord was waiting for us to come and buy it!" And that is how it all went down.

We moved into John and Debbi's house for a few weeks, then we went to Hawaii to visit my parents, and then a few days after we returned home we moved in to our new home.

This house has everything we wanted and we definitely have room to grow into it. One of my favorite parts, was we are right across the street from the church and there is a huge grassy area that makes up for our small backyard. One of the other big factors for us to decide on this home, was because my neighbor is one of my good friends. I know they don't have a dumb dog, and they will take care of their house. It feels good to know that if in a pinch, that I have a neighbor that I am not afraid to ask for some help.

We are mostly settled but there are still of little things that we need to do to help get more organized. So no pictures right now, but soon I promise.

So why all the details? Well through this whole process, I kept thinking that the Lord knows better than me. I know he does things on His time and not mine. Everything just seemed to have fallen into place for us. The no-go on the house building, the raise, the bump off the lot, the sell of the house, the new house, and the move in times. We had a lot of days when we thought we would just call it quits on the whole thing, but deep down inside, I knew that if I had some faith the Lord would show us the way. And he did. And we are grateful.

*Now this makes everything ever sweeter in my book. So you know our old lot???? Well the people who bumped us, didn't end up building.....Grrr! But here is the kicker....are you ready????
We have some family moving into town and they decided to build by us and they now are going to build on our old lot! (which is only about 6 house down from us)

See I told ya the Lord knows better than me! :)