Now what?

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5



Since my father-in law passed away a couple of months ago, my wife & I have been working to move her mother in with us. This was a promise Jen had made to Dad in the last days of his life. But it wasn’t like this was a spontaneous decision. About 3-4 years ago, when Dad’s health was in its initial decline, we privately talked with Mom about her living with us. And since we currently live only two miles from Jen’s sister and her family, Mom would be near both of her daughters, sons-in law and all of her grandchildren. It seemed like the ideal scenario.

Since we are in the process of adopting a child, our current residence would not be amenable for the four of us. Thus began the exhaustive process of searching for a home which would accommodate us all. But last month we seemingly received an answer to prayer as we came across a custom home builder on the Parade of Homes. We explained to him (like we had to a dozen other builders) what we were looking for. We sought to build a residence which would allow Mom to live with us but still maintain her solitude. That would entail Mom having her own dining area, appliances, etc. Thankfully, the aforementioned home builder had the perfect design.





And since it wasn’t something we would have to design from scratch, it wouldn’t be nearly as costly to build. Combine that with a slow real estate market, and we were getting a really great price on this home!! And the land where we were to build was only eight miles north of our current residence, which meant Mom would still be close to her entire family. Mom also insisted on continuing to attend a Missouri Synod Lutheran church. Upon doing some research, there was such a church two miles from the new place.

It was all right there. Everything just fell into place so easily and construction was scheduled to begin within the next couple of weeks. The only obstacle remaining was selling our homes. However, the realty company assured us that was a mere formality despite a difficult seller’s market. That’s because the realty group we were dealing with has a buyout program where they guarantee the sale of a home or they will buy it outright. Granted the buyout would not be full listing price but that was fine with us. Since we were going to obtain the new home at such an incredible bargain, it allowed us to be somewhat flexible on the sales of our respective homes.

Yesterday was the final meeting with the realtors. They were going to present the proposed list price for Mom’s house, with the guaranteed buyout coming in at about 90% of that. Jen and her mother listened intently to the offers. Since we all have been praying fervently over the past month for doors to be closed if this wasn’t right, I trusted my gal’s instincts wholeheartedly in making the right decision. Bottom line, she just didn’t feel right about the offers put forth despite all of the plans we’ve put into relocating. As a result, we’ve decided to “lean not unto our own understanding” and remain open to the plans the good Lord has for us.

As such, the initial disappointment quickly turned to joyful anticipation. As we’ve learned so often over the past several years of our walking in faith, “He will never leave us nor forsake us.” And as is always the case, the best is yet to come!

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