God's House

Oh how I've missed my blog! It's been months since I've written. I have taken a break from fostering over the past 6months and therefore stopped blogging for a while. But I'm back!

God has been on the move lately and I'm so blessed and thankful for the ways He has shown himself present in my life. The biggest and most exciting thing that God has done is providing a house for me! I started throwing around the idea of renting/buying a house this summer but didn't get serious about it until late September. I called a realtor and the first time we met he had 8 houses lined up for me to look at. The first 7 were either too small or too old or too expensive or not enough bedrooms or bad location, etc. etc. Then we got to the 8th house and it was love at first sight! This house was PERFECT it had everything that I wanted and more and on top of that my realtor thought we could actually get the asking price down to my price range.

I spent the next 3 weeks pleading and praying with God begging Him to give me this house. I worked my budget out a million and one times trying to save every penny possible to make buying this home a reality. Well, God moved and I felt led to make an offer on this property. I placed my first offer on October 15th. To make a long story short I endured 3 months of ups and downs and back and forth and the unkown and finally on January 11, last Wednesday, God gave me this property that I so desired to have.

There are no words to describe the blessing and gift that this home is to me. I remember telling one of my friends, way back in October, that it seemed so impossible and unlikely that I would get this house that if it actually happened I would know beyond the shadow of a doubt that it was only and all God's doing... Well here I sit 3 months later a home owner and I can 100% testify, story after story, that it was ALL God's doing. He moved mountains, turned the hearts of bankers and realtors, blessed my socks off and glorified himself in the process. It's an amazing story and an incredible testament to His faithfulnes.

I was recently reading Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis. I have followed her blog for many years and feel so connected with her, in my heart, because of her relentless love and passion for the fatherless, a calling that the Lord has placed on both of our lives. I wept and laughed and related to her in so many ways as I devoured the pages in her book. So many times I felt as though I was reading right out of my own journal. A week before my 3rd and final offer on the house was accepted I read the following excerpt out of her book. I couldn't have said what my heart was feeling about this home I so desired, any better than she said it herself. Just last night I wrote these words, straight from her book and straight from my heart, on the plywood floor of my family room in my new home (the new flooring hasn't been installed yet). This is the cry of my heart for this home that God has so graciously granted to me...

"It is a house of many cultures, many languages, and many colors... it is a house of praise and worship and thanks... it is my house but mostly it's God's house... All I knew was that if God had given me a house it couldn't be just for me. I knew that whatever I did, I was to use this house for the glory of my God... And that is the blessing God has given me in this house: I get to provide a home for children who are homeless, a safe haven for children who feel threatened, lost, and unwanted. Most of all I get to love children who don't know love otherwis. I get to accept them for who they are. I get to present them with my love and then teach them of the Father's extravagant love... The house I have fixed and painted and scrubbed for hours and days and weeks, the house I sweated and cried over in desperation... it is a place where children can be children, where people can know that they are important and special and loved. It is a place where people accept Christ and learn about Him and grow in Him. It is my house. But mostly, it is a house of the Lord. "