The Journey- The End of My Rope Led to God’s Funny Punchline

Contingency offers upon contingency offers was what we were continually facing. It seemed as though the stars would have to a line in a perfect position in order for things to work out on any house we approached to buy. And when I say any, I mean, many.

We had a contingency offer placed on our house in May of that year. The buyers had to sell their house, then the people buying their house needed to sell their house and so on and so forth. Between March of that year and November, we made offers on five to six houses.

You remember my want list, right?

My Want List

• Near the kids school
• Has property
• A place to park the camper
• Four bedrooms
• Within the budget

At this point, we were settling. We knew we were. We accepted the fact that we would not be able to find exactly what we wanted. Every house we tried to buy lacked at least one thing on my want list.

A Trip to Sam’s Club

It was mid-September, we were at Sam’s club shopping. We had a couple weeks prior, signed a contract on a house and quickly scheduled a friend to do the inspection. About a week later, out of nowhere, we got word that the buyers backed out with no real reason why. Nevertheless, our friend, the home inspector, was also at Sam’s club that evening.

His wife was very pregnant and with her due date approaching she and I chatted on the baby boy that was soon coming. Her husband began questioning what happened with the last house. After we explained, he out of nowhere said, “You wanna buy my house?”

I gave a fake laugh and said, “Well, we will think about it.” With his wife being near delivery, I blew it off as though he was just kidding and I didn’t prod any further.

That Round House

Our friends, whom we saw at Sam’s lived in a round house. Not long after seeing them, we drove that round house on a hill. As we drove by I looked up at the house and said, “I know it’s not very pretty from the outside but the kitchen looks gorgeous on facebook. I think we should go look at it.”

Travis immediately responded with, “Erika, it’s round. No thanks.”

We Found a Winner

November had arrived and so did the lift of the contingency offer on our home. Six months later, we still had not found a home but it was “Go time!” We were at a place that in a matter of days we needed to either find a home (for the 6th time now) or decide to not sell our house.

We decided to try another house in which we knew we would be settling for. It would be a 40 minute drive one way to the kids school but we could make it work. Only issue, the internet.

With my job, I work from home, I have to have high speed internet. After much investigating on the internet access and getting excited (again for the 6th time) about this potential house even though it wasn’t everything I wanted, much let down was on the horizon.

I received a call to confirm that this house was not going to work due to the lack of high speed internet.

At the End of My Rope

I was crushed. I was confused. I didn’t understand. I began to think maybe I was mentally ill and what I had heard nine months earlier was all made up in my head. You know when I heard God tell me, “You make the move, I’ll make the way?”

We WERE moving. We at least were TRYING to move and be obedient but nothing was going in our favor. I dropped what I was doing and dropped on my knees. Head in the carpet. I couldn’t even make the words through the whaling. But, my heart cried this….

“God, what do you want from me? We are trying to become foster parents. You called us to this. This is not contradictory to Your word. I don’t understand why this has been so difficult. Please find us a house. You know we have to have one in contract by the end of the week or back out of selling ours. You told me “You make the move, I’ll make the way.” I know this was your voice! I cannot do this anymore!!

After my meltdown, a puddle of tears remaining on the carpet was a reminder of how I was literally at the end of my rope. Nevertheless, I felt better. I had peace.

God Stepped In

The next day, I started work as usual. My realtor had scheduled some showings for that afternoon. The plan was, look at these homes, if we didn’t find “the one” then we would pull out of selling our house that evening.

My phone buzzed on my desk and I looked down to a text from the wife of our friend. You know the pregnant one, who now was no longer pregnant.

The text said this,

“We were talking this morning. Were you all serious about looking at our house? We are wanting to sell. You can come see it today if you want.”

I will never forget my initial response. I pointed to the sky and laughed out loud. Kind of like Sarah did when God told her at the age of 90 she would have a baby. I felt in that moment, God even chuckled because He saw this coming all along and it was a “jokes on you” type moment.

Just Let Go and Let God..

When I finally decided to let go of the rope, Jesus was right there to catch me. Arms wrapped around me and He carried me into the direction He had been seamlessly orchestrating from the very beginning.

God gave us a house that we did not have to settle for. A house that met every “want” we had. A house that could not have come one day sooner or one day later than it did. A house that was round of all things. Even though Travis said “never” and a round house was never something I dreamt of, God knew it was for us all along. That day is a day I recognized just how loving He is, how His timing is perfect, and that He has a comedic side as well.

The joke was on us throughout the whole thing and God’s punchlines are always the best!

Love you friends