The Long Journey and My testimony....

I have tons of pics to share of our beach trip, but I need to post something else first! Most of my friends/family know about my year. Back in August of 2006, we felt led by the Lord to put our home on the market. We had found a home that we loved and after much prayer, decided to go for it. Little did we know, that it wasn't going to be an easy sell. We had one offer immediately, but after that nothing. Seven months later, we changed realtors. This was a godsend because it turned out that the realtor recommended to us went to high school with Greg and most importantly she was a Christian! Immediately, we started to see more action, but still no offers. I found at least 3 other homes that I loved, and we even went up to North MS to look thinking that maybe God was wanting us there. Still, nothing happened. I can't tell you how many times I cried and felt so alone. I felt like God was not hearing me and I wondered why. I wish I could say that I held a steadfast faith, but I did not. My husband did however and he was very strong when I was weak! In early April, I was searching the MLS and I found a home that looked promising. I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up, but I called my realtor and we went and toured it. I fell in LOVE with it. It wasn't much larger then my current home but it had almost everything that we wanted in layout and rooms. I looked at it two more times and even took Greg to see it. I thought for sure that since I had found *THE* home, that God was going to sell ours. Still nothing, and so I did what I often have to do when I have a hard time surrendering. I took the listing sheet with this particular home and wrote on the front that it was my dream but that I surrendered it. I also put the date of April 15, 2007 on it and tucked it away in the little box on my nightstand. Three more months and nothing on our home and I pretty much had forgotten about it. Two weeks ago, after many discussions and lots of showings but no offers, Greg and I came to the conclusion that when we returned from the beach, we were taking our home off the market. We met with our neighbor and made plans to do a minor renovation in my kitchen. I was excited about that. The first night of my vacation I get a call from my realtor telling me not to get my hopes up, but we were supposedly getting an offer the next morning. WOW! I didn't get my hopes up and the next day we got a pretty low offer. We prayed and countered back. They countered again and we had a decision to make. We slept on it and prayed and had arrived at a number but at the last minute decided on one last offer. After my agent hung up, I sat on the bed and felt a mix of emotions. Then Greg came out of the bathroom and said he felt like we needed to pray. We held hands and prayed together...as soon as we finished, the phone rang and I heard those words I have longed to hear for months....CONGRATULATIONS!!!! The panic set in soon though when we realized how quickly they wanted us out. My agent sent me tons of listings to view on the computer. I spent a large part of vacation on my laptop. We had very particular requirements so I didn't see much of anything. I decided to ask if *my* house was still available and remarkably it was, and had gone down a little in price. We looked at it on Sunday and a few other things but decided that we would try an offer. We offered a much lower price and yesterday the builder came back with a counter. It was lower then I had expected and after realizing how much of a deal we were getting, we decided to accept. This home fits all of our needs and location wise puts us right in the middle of where we want to be. We are about 12 mins from church, 6 mins from shopping, and the girls will return to the school that they attended in the very beginning. We are getting such a deal on this home because it is truly a buyers market right now. There are things in this house that I can't believe we are being blessed with. Can you tell I am just a little excited? So long story short, we are scheduled to move on July 27th. Yes this is happening quickly but you would just not believe how smoothly everything is going. My current home inspection went extremely well. In fact the inspecter told the buyers agent that it was the cleanest one he has done in a long time. My heart is singing with praise to the Lord. He has answered my cries and given me the desires of my heart. I do not in anyway deserve this, but in his great mercy, once again his timing is perfect and his plan is far better then anything I could come up with. TO God be the glory! He alone gets the credit for this! He is so worthy to be praised! I just had to share and had to proclaim my deep thankfulness! We are so blessed! Thanks for reading and I pray this has been encouraging to someone! Psalm 18:30