Only God Can Make a Way

"Only God can get us this house. No doubt about it, there is nothing we can do to make this work."

I thought this again and again. I told JJ and He agreed. I told my friends and they nodded with confident assurance. As we walked forward, we asked God to open or close each door so we'd know that it was Him. We both had lost a little bit of the lustre of a new home just knowing the expenses, the work, the challenge of selling ours, the risk of being the first one to buy in what looked like an abandoned neighborhood. And the biggest obstacle was that it was zoned for a different elementary school. We had promised Andrew we would not move if he had to change schools for fifth grade - the year he'd be the upper class man he'd been waiting since kindergarten to be.

Some friends said he'd be grand-fathered in as a fifth grader. Others argued the opposite. The Sunday after we'd first seen the house, I shared with my friend at church that we were in a holding pattern until we could get the school figured out. She encouraged me to talk to the assistant principal who goes to our church. After the service we shared our story and he told us if it was zoned for another school Andrew couldn't stay in his current school. I told him we'd just walk away and wait for God's timing since Andrew only had a year before middle school. He then offered to research it and call me back on Monday.

Monday morning as I drove past the new house and prayed for God's protection or provision - as we had done each day- my cell phone rang. It was the principal calling to confirm the new address. "Mrs. Swope there's been mistake. That neighborhood is zoned for our school. The realtor's listing is wrong." What? It's zoned for the same school!!!?? WOW. I couldn't believe it.

Over the next few days we crunched numbers and prayed really hard. I would go by each day and many, many times the door would be open either by mistake or b/c workers were in there. I got to spend hours in there alone praying over each room. Asking God to fill it with His presence and prepare it for our family or lock the doors and lead us in a different direction. Two times when I went by I was able to show it to two of my friends so they could pray and hope with me.

We made our offer last week and over a period of days we watched God once again do only what He could do. They took our contingency based on our home selling and closing in 60 days, before we would be locked in. They came down significantly on how much earnest money was required.They dropped the price over 30K and had already marked it down 50K from the original price. It's lower priced than any house we could find in the area. It's right were we needed to be financially and the offer they accepted in the end is exactly the number God gave JJ during His quiet time one day, based on our family's life verse reference number.

Only God...