God's provision

this is my 100th post, so i feel pressure to say something profound. instead i am just going to tell you what has been going on in our lives lately. i know i said as recently as my last post 1 week ago that we would probably not buy a house until after residency. well, just kidding! in an amazing turn of events, it looks like we will be buying one after all. we are waiting to finalize the contract, but if all works out, this will be God's abundant provision for our family.

if you know us, you know we have rented in the downtown area of our city for the last five years. this neighborhood is a mixture of folk we like to call "urban hippies" (you know, ride your bike to work, save the earth one organic vegetable at a time, world peace type folk),urban poor, and a few concerned more with the historic preservation of the buildings and such than the actual people who live here. sometimes we have no idea what we are doing here besides loving and knowing our neighbors and seeking to reflect Christ in our marriage and family. however, we do not feel like God has released us from living here. we have been tempted to leave anyway on many occasions as we have had children and felt the challenges of raising a family in this type of environment. we discovered lead paint in our apartment-lots of it peeling all over-and we have covered the dangerous spots with packing tape. our ceiling is sagging over our stairs and may collapse in the near future. we park on the street and fear the dangers of getting two babies to the car safely. we have to walk to the various green spaces for marit to safely play and we long for a little bit of yard for her to enjoy.

we have gone through seasons of discontentment/unrest about our living situation and have been unable to determine what we were to do. any better renting situation has not become available. the houses that have come on and off the market were either too expensive or in need of major renovation and adam certainly will not have the time to do it during residency. and yet we feel called to this neighborhood. adam has said many, many times "we are not buying a house and if we do, it will not be in our neighborhood." and so we have just been waiting and watching to see what next steps we were to take.

there has been an amazing change that has occurred in adam's heart in the last week or so through a homeless man, c, with poor health. he befriended adam and has been coming around for food on occasion. we had a little problem with him banging on our door while i was home alone (breaking the agreement adam and c had to not come to our house unless he knew adam was home until we got to know him better). adam had a confrontational conversation with c that was not gentle or careful and c left. adam came inside and was filled with remorse for not treating c with dignity and respect that every human deserves, so he went to find him and apologize. c was dumbfounded and quick to forgive and kept saying "you came looking for me?". adam was able to share some of the Gospel with him as his own eyes were opened to how God views people and cares for the homeless, sick, hungry just as deeply as for the upright, graduating medical student, and father. all that to say, adam has been re-energized to live in the city and we both want our children to grow up seeing people like c and brokenness and to know that God's redemptive grace heals these people and he wants us to participate in that process of redemption. i don't know if that all makes sense or not. i'm not trying to take a moral highground or anything. i'm talking about what is right for our family. these kind of things look different from family to family and brokenness is just as prevalent in wealthy neighborhoods...just covered up a little better.

anyway, as adam's heart has been changed some, other things have been happening on the housing front. we discovered that residents can actually get really good mortgages that do not require a down-payment or private mortgage insurance (i guess banks think we will one day buy a $600,000 house...yeah right). that has always been our struggle when we consider buying a house...we just don't have a bunch of up-front cash right now and want to be careful not to get in over our heads with mortgages and such. also, the government is giving $8000 to first-time home buyers right now. so, we have learned that buying a house is not really that unrealistic for us, but good grief do we want to own a 100yr old house?

yes we do! especially since it has already been renovated completely. there is no lead paint because nearly all the old plaster has been removed except for a square above the fireplace. this is one of the first houses that we have looked at in our neighborhood that is actually in our price-range and our payments will be about the same as our rent has been (most likely because the street it is on has not gentrified yet...more opportunities for ministry if you will). it sits on an enormous lot (a rarity here as well) and the yard just needs landscaping, but has so much potential. God is so gracious to provide (assuming the contract is finalized...they have verbally accepted our offer) a roof over our heads, but He did not have to also include an awesome kitchen with new appliances (!!) and 2400 sq feet of space for our family to grow into. did i mention that this house is across the street from one dear family from our church and the backyard backs up to the yard of another one? if it really happens, we may not ever move. His provision really is so abundant.

i know, it is 100yrs old and we are certain to find problems over time. we are not unrealistic, but right now we are just busy being overwhelmed and excited! pray that if this is God's best for us, the process will continue to go smoothly. i'll keep you posted as the contract is finalized and the inspections take place...