On Thursday, May 6th, we received the phone call: The Yellow House At The End Of The Lane had been sold to someone else.

Surprisingly enough, I felt only a twinge of disappointment. Granted, other more traumatic events had recently clamped my thoughts into their choking death-grasp, and I didn't have a lot of brain power left over for thoughts of the home that wasn't meant to be. Also, God had hugged me a few days before the news of the house came, and His hug is still giving me peace as I write this. But from the very beginning when Jeremy and I sat across the table from each other in that restaurant and held hands asking God for His wisdom, we have been careful to keep this situation in His hands. He's smarter and sees further, you know. So we had decided that if God wanted us to have the house, HE would do what HE needed to do to give it to us, and if He didn't want us to have this house, He wouldn't. Finding out that He didn't do it was disappointing but not devastating.

Another possible reason for our relatively peaceful resignment to the situation was the fact that Jeremy and I have had time to prepare for the probable disappointment. We had already discussed what our options would be if God chose to give the home to someone else, and we knew we would go ahead and build on the small lot we had picked out before that was almost perfect for our family.

In the week or so since receiving the negative yellow house news, I have reflected on our absolute certainty that we should go ahead with the bid and the wait, which has now caused us to miss out on some of the relocation benefits Jeremy's company would have provided. I have wondered, did we misunderstand God's prompting? Did we make it all up? But having thought about it here and there when time and brain-space has permitted, I've realized a few things. First, I am sure beyond sure that we did follow God's leading. He made it very clear to both of us that we were to put the bid in and wait for the conclusion of the matter no matter what it cost us. He made that clear to us several times over the months when changing our minds would have been convenient.

I don't know all of His purposes, but the second thing that I have realized is that the wait for the house took us on a maze of twists and turns where God's working in the situations became extremely evident and His gentle-yet-persistent pull on some hearts traveled to the top of our prayer lists and has remained there. It has ended up being quite an adventure story with good guys and bad guys, thickening plot lines, justice hopefully coming forth, but more importantly closer relationships with God forming in several hearts! We were introduced to people who have become good friends; we were introduced to people who have desperate heart needs; we were introduced to people who became nice connections to have in this town, and none of that would have been possible if we had not ridden the wave of waiting. We have also made friends with neighbors here at our apartment complex who we would never have met if we had built a house months ago and moved on our time-table.

I'm so glad God is smarter than we are and that following Him is an unpredictable, sometimes wild, always worth-it decision.

So now you know. We are building a house! We chose a plot of land in a wonderful neighborhood where we already have friends who go to our church. I called it "almost perfect" earlier because we won't own a lot of land the way we had wished, but a small park, some rolling hills, a scenic pond and a gorgeous line of trees decorate the property just beyond the limits of our backyard, and we can easily pretend they are ours.

The house plans are finished. The decorator has done her job. The mortgage agent approved it all. Now we just need to sign the paperwork this week and begin negotiating a price for the land.

Let the new adventure begin!