LOCT, Old House, New House, A Test

He had been talking about it for months. It scared me to death. Were we ready for this. This is big. This is huge. This would take total dependence on the Lord to be our provider. We couldn't put our faith in the steady paycheck that came every other Tuesday like clock work. Then it happened ...

On October 12, 2011. Carey resigned from the law firm he had been working at for the past four years. The Law Office of Carey Thompson, PC was formed.

Very exciting. Very scary.

We had a grand total of $2,000 in the bank. We had $7,000 in his 401k. We had a house payment, two car payments, a student loan payment and five mouths to feed. Gulp

So, we prayed and prayed. And then we sat back and were able to have front row seats to the most amazing, incredible, miraculous experience of our lives thus far. God moved. God provided. God blessed.

October 13, 2011. We received an offer on the sale of our home. We put our house on the market in October of 2010. Yes, 2010. A year ago. Our contract with the real estate agent had expired a few weeks ago and I just hadn't had a chance to contact the agent to tell him to take it off and that we were going to stay put. Well, we got an offer. It wasn't great offer or even a good offer. It was an offer to break even. So, we took it.

Now we are broke and homeless. A little dramatic, I know. But that it how it seemed.

So began the search for a home. We decided to rent because we were pretty certain that no lender would lend money to a couple who was not gainfully employed. We found a home to rent in Saginaw that seemed nice enough. The monthly rent would be the exact same amount that we were paying as a house payment, even though the house was smaller. But the neighborhood was safe and that was our main concern.

Then my parents had an epiphany. Why don't they buy the house and we pay the mortgage. Ok. Let's do that! So then the search began for a house to buy. FUN!! We went ahead and looked for our dream house. The one that we would move to and finally be settled.

Requirements:
Price: $200,000
Lot size: 1 acre
Bedrooms: 4
School District: Eagle Mountain Saginaw
And some other details, but those were the major requirements.

October 30, 2011. Well, there were exactly zero houses that fit that in EMS ISD. So, let's look in Northwest ISD. Found it.

Love.

So, I called the loan guy and told him our plan. He said "Easy, just have your parents say that this is going to be their permanent residence and then we are good to go." And there it is. That little voice inside you that whispers ... um, no, this isn't right. I couldn't do that. I couldn't get this house on a lie. I know that the Lord hadn't brought us down this path to a point that we could only move on with a lie.  And that is exactly what I told the loan guy. I told him all the God stuff I just mentioned. And he was silent. Then he told us that we would need $40,000 to buy this home then. Well, it might as well be $4 million. We barely had $100 to buy groceries that week. We said our good-byes and I told him we would give him a call in the future when we were ready to buy.

Bye-bye house. Maybe in a year or two. Let's just rent. And I immediately fell out of love with the dream house.

So I called my mom and told her the bad/good news that the Lord had made for us. And she had another epiphany. Why don't they co-sign for the loan. Hmmmm ...

Called back the loan guy. And he was silent. Then he said "Now that is a good idea."

HELLO dream house! I am back in love with you!!

November 19, 2011. Moving day. Moved stuff into storage. Moved people into Pops and Gigis' house. And something else happened too (see December 5, 2011 below). Am I blushing?

November 21, 2011. Closing day on the old house. Very emotional day. Lots of people not doing their job correctly. Lots of mistakes made. But had my first In and Out burger ... it was good!

December 2, 2011. Closed on our new house. Moved in that evening. There was alot more to it but I choose to focus on the fact that we did reach our end goal. The journey was SOOOOO excruciating. Everything that could go wrong did and everyone took advantage of our good nature. But we were home.

Ahhhhh ...  The end to a long and emotional journey. We had sold the house and bought our dream house and had exactly $200 in the bank. I started unpacking and didn't stop for three days.

December 5, 2011. Once I finally sat down and relaxed, I realized something.

I took a test. And it was positive. Of course, I didn't realize it was positive. I had lost the instructions. So I looked them up on the internet. If there are two horizontal lines then it is positive. Well mine had to vertical lines.

Carey then tilted the test upward. And there they were ... the two horizontal lines.

Couldn't believe it. Jumped in the car, drove to Walmart and bought another one. Read the instructions. Took the test. Positive.

We were having a baby.