when His plans are different

forgive the long post but here goes...

our story starts about 5 years ago (2004). we move into a 2 bedroom condo with a 2 year old and a newborn. it was great, except it wasn't ours. about 10 months into our lease our condo when on the market and sold in 3 days. we prequalified for a loan by calling the bank and having them ask us how much money we wanted to borrow.(this was 2005, think....) we thought $300k was good enough so off we went house hunting. this was the beginning of a trying, frustrating and crazy time. contracts with escalation clauses, no contingencies all sorts of no-no's. the one townhouse we loved we lost by about 30k. it was in manassas, which is far out but hubs worked about 15 minutes away. when we lost that house we gave up. we signed a year lease on a great townhouse.

we loved this townhouse, and even talked to some neighbors about buying their townhouse for $300k. that fell through when the market started falling. after being in the house for a year i got pregnant with #3 and did not want to think about moving. well knock knock the landlord shows up one day and tell us we needed to be out in 60 days. what?!? i'm 8 months pregnant! we didn't have time to buy something. we had to find a rental.....again.....

we found this amazing house in a great neighborhood. it was the most horrendous move ever. ever. several months into our lease the owner offered us a chance to purchase the house from her. we were ecstatic. fast forward to 3 months ago when the owner called and said she had to decided to come home and not sell the house. what?!?!

each time the Lord has shown that he knows more. for example 3 months after we lost bids on townhouses in manassas hubby changed jobs closer to d.c which would have given him an hour + long commute. then gas prices went up. we would have been sunk. that house just foreclosed on for $140k. the townhouse in reston is also valued at $60k below what we had discussed.

we make plans and try to make them work. for us, the Lord clearly has a vision far greater than our own. our upcoming move is sure to show us something more that he has in store for us.

"There is a divine purpose in the adversities we encounter every day. They prepare, they purge, they purify, and thus they bless." - James E. Faust