How It All Started
Love:
Jesse and I met and fell in love when we were teenagers-at the tender ages of 15 and 17. We met through church (the best place to meet people) and built our love on a strong foundation. Love:
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Our First House
After being in an apartment for a year (and watching a whole lotta HGTV), we decided we were 
1. Jesse and I are project people. The kind that always have to be working on something. So....we did the only thing we could do to that house-2. We learned a lot about our tastes in that first house. We found out we like old houses. We were both raised in old houses growing up-yes the kind that squeak and make weird noises- ahh....music to our ears. The new house we bought just didn't seem to fit with our quirky personalities-it was way too square. We needed something a little more random and misfit.
3. We wanted to save more money. Jesse and I both have great full-time jobs. He's an accountant and I'm a speech therapist who works in the public schools. We were doing fine, even putting away extra money each month. But that's all-just fine. We wanted to be better stewards of what we had been given. We realized it was the "newness" of the house that we were paying for, not necessarily, the quality. We wanted a house that fit our style and one we were comfortable in and wanted money left over be more generous do more fun things! We wanted a lot and so...we prayed.
The Hunt
After a year of living in our first house we knew God was leading us someplace different. We prayed and trusted that He would guide us and He did. We knew we need a great-no, unbelievable-deal on a house. We started the fun process of researching. (You only think I'm being sarcastic). We looked into short-sales, foreclosures, and sheriff auctions. We would then input data into super cool spreadsheets which included stats on the surrounding houses, prior sales, and comparable real-estate. Then, one day it happened-we attended our first real estate auction. We were hooked! The fast pace, the auctioneer's voice, the signs, the rush-we loved it all. But we also knew from the numbers that people get carried away and thus-not all auctions are good deals.In May 2011, we were very interested in a house for auction. It was close to our first house, and had previously been auctioned for very cheap. We prayed, did our research, and determined our high bid. We thought the chances were good. The day of the auction came. Jesse's parents came and I so glad. The room was full! Could people hear my out-of-control heart keeping pace with the auctioneer's voice? I wiped my dripping palms on my jeans. One bid-then another! Jesse moved behind me but I dared not look or move for fear my move would be taken as a bid. I felt Jesse wave his number in the air-we had it! We had the bid! Whoa-wait a minute-another bid? Then another....past our set amount. We lost that house and went away sooo disappointed. We thought we knew God's plan. In fact though, God had a different, much better plan for us....
Our Current House:
A few weeks after, still reeling from the other auction, we heard of another. This house was 125 years old-(yes, that's twice the age of both Jesse and my ages combined!) in a small town of only 800 people. This house also happened to be smack-dab in the middle of both our work settings, which was only 10 minutes each way for both of us. Previously, it was taking Jesse 30 minutes and me 40 minutes to get to work. The town was known for its meat market across the street from this house. The people who started and owned this market lived in this house for 67 years-67 years! Again, we prayed, did our research, and visited it several times before the day of the auction. Jesse and I struggled to agree on a set high bid we were willing to offer. He wanted to go higher, I wanted to go lower.We prayed and split the difference, meeting in the middle. We also prayed this time a very specific request: "God, show us where You want us by making it completely obvious-so that we don't have to guess. Amen"On June 16, 2011, we arrived at the house for the auction. I had trouble finding parking. Apparently, in a town of 800, everyone shows up when it is the auction of a well-known and loved house. It was quite a sight! On a normally quiet street, families had their lawn chairs out, hotdogs and cotton-candy was being sold, and children ran in and out of the auction house, playing tag.
The auction was about to start! I loved this atmosphere and somehow was not as nervous for this auction like I was the previous one. I was so thirsty though. Jesse had a good spot on the side of the crowd so I went to grab a lemonade before the auction started. I returned just as it began. Again the auction began like lightening. One bid was thrown, higher than what we expected it start out as-then another and another. I started sweating again and nervously took a sip of my lemonade. It was a whirlwind of chaos. In no time, the bid was over our high bid and then came to a stop before we even had a chance to bid. The house was sold for just a little more than what we had agreed on. My heart sank. I looked up at the auctioneer. He was looking at me and said "Congratulations to the young couple!" We looked behind us. About 10 older people stared back at us. Who was this "young couple" that outbid us? I turned to Jesse, "Ready to leave? I just want to go home." We made one step to our car but someone interjected and shook our hand-"Congrats on your new home!" That was all it took-suddenly-we were swarmed by people coming over to congratulate us. "We're your new neighbors, right behind you. If you need anything, just let us know." What was going on?! The auctioneer made his way toward us...."Congratulations!" He said as he eagerly shook Jesse's hand. Here was the moment of truth: Jesse turned and said, "Sir, we never bid." He looked at me and said "But I saw her nod her head at the winning bid." Then I remembered and I felt the color drain from my face: I had taken a sip of my lemonade and kept eye-contact with the auctioneer. What happened?! I was always so careful not to move at auctions and here I was-my small movement just bought a house. This was the first time I had ever won anything at an auction. And no, it couldn't have been a dresser or desk-it was a house! My sip of lemonade had placed the winning bid?! There was one problem-it was still more than what we had set our bid on and we had made a promise to stick with our amount no matter what. Jesse resolutely stepped forward: "It went for over what we wanted." The auctioneer looked nervous then and called Jesse over to the side. He asked him what our bid was and we told him. He immediately got on the phone with the other bidder and asked them if they wanted to outbid our high bid. They said "no." What! This is truly from God-we got our house by doing absolutely nothing ourselves and at the amount we wanted.
Everything was a blur-we were actually signing our names to a house. We looked at the numbers again. Compared to our current house, this house was bigger and less than half the amount of money. We made our way back to our car through through a mass of more "Congratulations" and handshakes from the neighborhood. People kept coming up to us saying "We're so glad a young couple bought this house!." We even met the major of the town! Jesse wanted to make a good impression because he thought this might come in handy if he ever got a speeding ticket-haha! (Which, as we later learned, didn't help). As we got into our car that night, we looked up again at the massive house we just bought. It was obvious to us, that more than just the neighbors wanted us to be there; Someone else had a plan for us as well.
Life After the Auction
When we got home that night, we were ecstatic-Praise to God! He knows the plans for our lives and blessed us by answering our prayer of knowing this came directly from Him. We didn't have to even wonder if this was where He wanted us. He basically did "bidding" at that auction. However, soon the world and decisions started setting in....What about our current house? Will it sell? How long will we have to straddle two mortgages? Our current house was in a cul-de-sac where every other house was up for sale. The market was at an all-time low. Our neighbors had just sold their house after having it on the market for a year. Also....their house was much nicer than ours and we were selling ours for the same price. Uhgg... Again, doubts started setting in. We had some major praying to do and fortunately many people were praying for us.We met a real estate agent who leads our small group at church. We immediately put our house up for sale. Here's the neat part: we had an offer and accepted it within 2 days. Did you hear that?- 2 days!! and...we received 96% of our asking price. More than what we expected. God is good!
Why am I saying this? Many of my friends have houses that have been up for sale for months and they are praying with the right motives...Do I think that God listens to us but not others? NO. I don't know why our house sold that quickly when others have not. The only thing I know is that God wanted us here in this house. I have felt it. We are here for a purpose. And through this blog I will share why.
We moved in July 22, 2012 and began our story of:
packing,
I hope you enjoy our story!
When we got home that night, we were ecstatic-Praise to God! He knows the plans for our lives and blessed us by answering our prayer of knowing this came directly from Him. We didn't have to even wonder if this was where He wanted us. He basically did "bidding" at that auction. However, soon the world and decisions started setting in....What about our current house? Will it sell? How long will we have to straddle two mortgages? Our current house was in a cul-de-sac where every other house was up for sale. The market was at an all-time low. Our neighbors had just sold their house after having it on the market for a year. Also....their house was much nicer than ours and we were selling ours for the same price. Uhgg... Again, doubts started setting in. We had some major praying to do and fortunately many people were praying for us.We met a real estate agent who leads our small group at church. We immediately put our house up for sale. Here's the neat part: we had an offer and accepted it within 2 days. Did you hear that?- 2 days!! and...we received 96% of our asking price. More than what we expected. God is good!
Why am I saying this? Many of my friends have houses that have been up for sale for months and they are praying with the right motives...Do I think that God listens to us but not others? NO. I don't know why our house sold that quickly when others have not. The only thing I know is that God wanted us here in this house. I have felt it. We are here for a purpose. And through this blog I will share why.
We moved in July 22, 2012 and began our story of:
packing,
putting everything we owned into a garage,
chaos,
having no kitchen for 7 months,having no living room for 11 months,
GROWTH.I hope you enjoy our story!
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