When Miracles happen. Part 3 of the House of Dreams

If you haven’t read part 1 and part 2 of this story, you  should start at the beginning to see what happened in Miracles 1-16. 

The process of selling our house has been an emotional roller coaster and that is an understatement.  It’s hard to sell a house! But maybe even especially if your house is your business like mine is. I’m definitely not discounting how hard it is for others, I promise, but I never expected how much this would impact me. 

I was starting to get discouraged. As you heard in part 2 of this story, my kids had the idea to fast on Sunday for our house to sell. And a few days before that, we had learned that another person was interested in buying the dream house. Plus, they didn’t have to sell their house first. So the owners did what anyone would do. They decided that as soon as our contract was up, they would open up the sale of their home to “other people.” Which meant, on Nov 12, the house would sell to the other people. This was confirmed, and I started to have a complete melt down. 

I was freaking out. We lowered the house $10,000 more {we had already lowered it $10,000 a few weeks before}, and we hoped that would bring other buyers.  By Sunday I had little hope. I was depressed about it. I was down in the dumps. But, I had a calm feeling that what ever was supposed to happen would. So I kept saying things to myself “You will be ok either way” and “Heavenly Father knows the best path for you, trust in Him.” I even changed my Jut board to say “Trust in Him” to be a physical reminder for myself. 

Since my house is my business, this has really been tough because the projects have to stop when your house is for sale! Plus, we kept getting kicked out of our house for showings. For someone like me who has ideas flooding my brain at all times, it’s been extra hard.  About a month an a half into the selling process, I started having REALLY negative emotions and thoughts about things… Maybe someone doesn’t want my house because I’m not good at decorating…. maybe I shouldn’t even try to move because…. if people hate this house….yada yada yada. 

I have recognized that Satan creeps into my life like this, but for some reason, I was having a hard time throwing out these thoughts. I would physically and mentally tell myself to “STOP” coming up with ideas for the new house.  It was painful for my soul. It was as if I couldn’t let myself dream anymore.  I was knowingly blocking my own happiness, dreams, and goals, but I didn’t know how to stop it. Because the what ifs were more powerful than ever…

What if the feelings I had weren’t real. 

What if it doesn’t happen.

What if we actually CAN’T afford it. 

What if the kids pray about selling the house and it doesn’t sell?

What if they sell the house to the other people?

What if I don’t deserve it?

What if this is a sign? 

What if the answer we received in the temple wasn’t real?

So I stopped telling people, and for a long time I didn’t even show my parents the pictures of the new house. 

Miracle  # 19: A few weeks ago I got invited to a blog event with some of my favorite people ever. The Classy Clutter girls helped me to see how negative my thoughts had become, and I realized that I hadn’t allowed myself to be excited about the new house. I was completely engulfed in negativity about it. Savannah said something that made me cry. She said “Dan and you are the most deserving people in the world. This is going to happen, I know it!” After that, I tried really hard to push away the negative thoughts. We spent the weekend brainstorming  about the house. It was incredible. So I tried hard to stop it! 

Miracle #20: My husband told me I was crazy. I know this sounds like a weird “miracle.” But, every time I would voice a reason why “signs” were pointing against things working out, Dan would instantly tell me to stop! He had so much faith in the answer to our first prayer, that he attempted to keep me calm. My amazing husband had unwavering faith, so we kept going forward. 

Miracle #21: my house STILL didn’t sell. I could not believe the house hadn’t sold yet. After a month of trying to sell the house by owner, we decided to hire a realtor to “get the job done” and again, the house didn’t sell. For almost 12 weeks in a row, we had constant showings and almost everyone gave us positive feedback. They would just say things like “love it, it’s in our top three” or “shows beautifully” or “they decided on a house in a cul-de-sac” or “buyers decided to go with a rambler instead of a house with stairs,” or “expect an offer….” I was shocked nothing happened. Well, we did have two other offers, but they both fell through. 

But, I now know all of these things were happening because:

A. We needed to lower the price for Wendi and Jake,

and

B. Wendi and Jake were not ready to make a big decision yet. They are both in the tail end of getting their graduate degrees, and they both work like feens. They are hard workers, and again Wendi had just started her new job. 

Miracle #22: We had excluded Jake and Wendi from paying realtor fees when we signed the contract with our realtor {and anyone else who came directly to us outside of the MLS}.

So when Jo had told me to call Wendi {in miracle 12}, I finally gave in. I told her we could go much lower on the price than I could with anyone else because we wouldn’t have realtor fees. Which I’m so happy for them about this because this is exactly how we afforded our new house too {see miracle 8}.

It’s about to get real folks.

At this point, you know that as of Sunday Nov 5th, we only had 7 days left in our contract {to our knowledge}, and that hope was dwindling inside me. We fasted that day and so did a few of our friends. After church, Dan sent Wendi a message to ask for Jake’s phone number, and she asked us to come see the house. 

Miracle #23: Jake agreed to come see the house. Jake wasn’t sold on the idea of our house. He had a few reasons, and they were completely valid. So we told them to come look one last time. 

Miracle #24: It was Stake Conference, and because of that, Jake and Wendi were out of church earlier than usual. Jake works graveyards, and if they would have had their normal ward, he wouldn’t have been awake to be able to see the house.  So the fact that he was actually awake and able to come see the house, is a miracle.

They brought their kids, and they LOVED the house. The happiness on the kid’s faces were priceless. And Wendi kept saying things like “this is soooooo much better than I remember,” and “this is BIGGER than I remember.” Deep inside I let a glimmer of hope back in.  

Before they left, I wanted to put things in writing, so I scribbled on a paper while we talked about price. I wanted them to know we were serious about things. So I scribbled it all out, and sent them on their way to pray about things, and decide. 

On November 6th, Wendi sent us a message that said  something like, my neighbor made us an offer, and I’m working on our pre-approval, I feel good, but Jake needs a day or two. 

So, I kiiiiiiinda freaked out. I couldn’t believe it. But, we still didn’t have an offer, so until I had the paper in my hand, I knew it was still just a dream. 

Miracle: #25: As of two days ago, Wendi sent me the text, “the best news of all is that Jake is ready!” Like most men Jake was the last to decide to pull the trigger. 

Miracle #26: Wendi and Jake’s house went under contract with their neighbor! After they came on Sunday, Jake was working graves for the next three days. But Wendi approached her neighbor to see what he would offer for their house, and they negotiated a price that was exactly what Wendi needed to make things happen. 

But, at this point we were still worried what the owner of our dream home would say because we were going to miss the settlement deadline that we thought was Nov 11. But, we wished and hoped that we could beg them for more time and to not sell the house to the other people if we were under contract with our house. 

Miracle #27: When Dan got home from work on Wednesday and said he had a thought that he needed to look at our contract for the dream house. He found the contract, looked at the dates and realized that we had confused the deadline. We actually had until JANUARY 11th for the dream house settlement to go through. November 11th was the deadline for due diligence. So, if all goes well, we will close a few weeks prior to the settlement deadline.

I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father and for this faith promoting experience. I am sooooo excited for Jake and Wendi to move into our house. They are so lucky to be moving into this neighborhood. They just won the lottery in the neighborhood world. 

And I am so grateful that the owners of the new house have been so patient with us during this entire process. I started to feel wacko every time I talked to them because it seems like every time we would talk I would say “Someone just came to see it and they REAAAAAALLY like it, so we are expecting an offer tomorrow” and then the offer would never come in. It’s definitely taught me to be patient in God’s plan for me and to Trust in Him and his timing.

Line upon line it is all working out. 

I know we still have financing to get through, but we are all pre approved, so hopefully that goes smoothly. So if you don’t mind saying a prayer for us, I will love you forever. 

God is real. God is good. 

xoxo,

Brooke