GOD Bless the U.S.A.

Have you heard the story about the elementary school in Massachusetts who tried to cave in to political correctness? (That is a terrible beginning sentence, but I'm not fully awake yet.)

Yes, these wonderful fourth grade students studied hard to learn all about the 50 states of America, and had planned to present a patriotic musical program showing off their newly found wisdom. Oh my! The finale (I assume) was to be the Lee Greenwood song "God Bless the USA". But, political correctness dictates that we must offend NO ONE (Christians don't count, of course), so a brilliant liberal (again, I'm assuming, since they are so adamant on political correctness) just changed the words to "We love the USA". The parents did not like this solution, so the school decided to just cancel the program. Great idea. Who cares about all the hard work the students put into their program.


Thankfully, the parents and students were enraged at this development, and the school relented, and the children can sing (or not sing, if they choose) the word "God". I am very encouraged, not to mention, shocked, that in Massachusetts "Common Sense" won out, even though there is always the opportunity to "opt out" of something deemed potentionally offensive. Finally. I hope it starts a trend, and people start standing up to the liberal censorship that is being forced upon us.


I also hope that those children sing their loudest at the chorus: GOD bless the USA!


How did we get to this point? It started back in the 1960's when atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair won the case to have prayer removed from the schools. (If you want to get technical about it, it started back in 1913 under the leadership of Progressive president Woodrow Wilson.) Why are atheists so intolerant? Why should symbols or words that mean nothing to them offend them? Because in this day and age of political correctness, they can scream offense and get away with it, and because those in power are anxious to get rid of anything "Christian". People wonder why we are having so many school shootings? Really? The answer is very simple. There is no moral authority anymore. Heaven forbid that anyone displays the 10 Commandments anywhere. People have become their own gods (wouldn't that be considered a religion?), and we have been told for so long that "if it feels good, do it", so it's no wonder that people are going around killing others because they are angry about one thing or another. If a society wants to take God out of every aspect of their lives, they had better be prepared for the consequences.


I could give you a big, long list of quotes from our Founding Fathers about God and government, but I'll save that for another post. Our Founding Fathers knew that a country that did not recognize God was doomed to failure.


If freedom loving people do not make their voices heard and start yelling "ENOUGH!" then there will be no more freedoms to defend.

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News Flash Part 2

So, in part 1, I shared our happy news of being homeowner's again, and how we found our dream house.


Part 2 is how I believe God was working through the whole process. 


Way #1 - was, of course, our friend's prodding to look at this house, which had been empty for about a year. 


Way #2 -  the broker that our real estate agent (let's just call him MM) worked with knew the homeowner. And if memory serves me correctly, and that is a rarity, I believe he came into the office while MM was trying to find information on the house. MM was able to represent both us and him, and kept things moving.


Way #3 - In some "bizarre way" two different banks held the title to the house, and the wrong bank had started the foreclosure. Because it was the wrong bank, this stopped the proceedings and gave us a small window for a short sale. And because it was a short sale, we made an offer on a house we had not even walked through! 


Way #4 - If MM had not been our realtor, we may not have gotten to square one. His persistence and know-how kept the process from stalling. He had stacks and stacks of papers to fill out, and most of the time he had to send the same papers over and over again. (your government at work.)  Our case went from one person to another person to another person, each with a ridiculous title, and each required 7 - 14 days to make a decision, and they were in no hurry. (Again, your government at work. Think "health care".) Add to that the fact that we had to work around Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. 


Way #5 - Everytime we started to feel discouraged, we would pray for a tidbit of encouragement. Without fail, sometimes before the "amen" was said, we'd get a call from MM with an update. He would tell us that everything was still "a go", we just had to wait on the process. Hubby had no doubts that this was the house the Lord would bless us with. I remained cautiously hopeful, but still kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It never dropped.


Way #6 - Finally, the time came for the appraisal. Our offer had to be 88% of the appraisal. While we were hoping for a really low appraisal due to all the work that needed to be done, it did work out to be in our price range.


Way #7 - In order to do the appraisal, MM had to leagally break-in because for some reason, no one had a key to the house. This gave us the opportunity to buy a lock and have a key.


Way #8 - A few days after the appraisal, an inspector came to inspect the property and when he left, he turned off all the electricity. This would not have been a problem except that the sump pump needed electricity. Shortly after that, we had a torrential downpour. This resulted in having three feet, literally, of water in "our" basement. Now, you may question me as to why this is showing how God was working. I was asking the same questions.


Hubby and I had gone to a wedding that weekend, but, as God would have it, MM had stopped to check on the house. He called to tell us we had a wet basement. He had a friend who had a pump, and we had a hose, so we mad arrangements to meet at the house the next day, which happened to be on a Sunday, to get the water pumped out.


Way #9 - Do we have an awesome realtor or what?


Way #10 - After the water was pumped out, Hubby took our dehumidifier over and plugged it in to dry up as much moisture as possible. We didn't need mold growing.


Way #11 - So now we're getting near to the end and I am confident that God will not bring us this far only to snatch it away.


Way #12 - We're  finally on the last leg of the journey which started in September. But now, suddenly, the case is turned over to H.U.D. More paperwork. More delay. And, let me just say, that during all this time, the weather has been absolutely beautiful and unseasonably warm. There was so much we wanted to be doing outside, but couldn't. Now, according the H.U.D. regulations, we had to have the electric put in out name, and we had to prove that we had taken occupancy! Ever hear of anything so crazy?? This had to done and proven BEFORE we could have confirmation on the house! Thank God for the flooded basement. We were in possession of the key and had the dehumidifier running.


Here's another crazy government regulation - There is some fee (I don't know what) that every bank always pays at the sale of a house. H.U.D. was not going to pay. They said they can only pay it if it's a tax. So, MM, our fantastic realtor, says, "So, if I re-word this to be a "tax" you can pay it?" Yep, you got it. The fee became a tax and they gladly paid it. Every "i" has to be dotted just so, and every "t" has to be crossed precisely, or you'll find yourself back to square one. 


Last week we signed the papers, and it officially became our house! It's been a wild ride with lots of ups and downs, and we can't wait to finally get settled!


So, do you want to see a picture or two, or three? 

It looks better at a distance

Our Dream House 

From the back, the dining room and living room

Ghosts? Or maybe just our reflections in the window,
while doing our Peeping Tom impersonations.
The office which Hubby has graciously offered to share.

The back view

The poor, pitiful front "porch"

It ours all the way back to the trees

Well, there you have it. We have our work cut out for us. If you don't hear from me for a little while, you know where I'll be, slappin' paint on the walls. I can't wait for the "after" pictures!

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News Flash!

I do have a bit of news to share with you, my friends. It seems that 2012 (do you say 20-12 or two thousand 12? Just curious.) is getting off to a good start. Our very mild winter (so far!) is one example. I have not missed the snow, ice, or blustery wind one iota! (I woke up to five inches of snow on the ground this morning. BLAH!) But, the best reason that 2012 is going to be a good year is that Hubby and I are going to be homeowner's again. We are very excited about it. In fact, you might say that we are downright giddy about it. Tee hee.


I'll share how our dream became a nightmare at a later date, but now it seems like the nightmare is dissipating, and dreams are back in our lives again.


For the past three years, we have been renting from Hubby's sis. She has been anxious to sell her house, but has graciously held off until we found a place. We have been searching for three years hoping to find a place where we could finally settle. We've been to umpteen thousand (it seems) sheriff's sales, auctions, and foreclosures. Each place seemed like a good place, and usually nearly perfect for what we needed and wanted to accomplish. But, every place, for one reason or another (usually because we were outbid) went to someone else.


We trusted in the Lord, sometimes got a little discouraged with the Lord, trusted some more, asked, begged, and pleaded; questioned, and trusted some more. 


Last Fall, our prayers began to be answered. A friend had mentioned that she passed an empty house every day on her way to work. But, we were busy with other things (mostly canning and Hubby working out of state) and forgot about it. A couple weeks later, she asked if we had checked it out. This time we hopped in the car and went looking for it.


As soon as we pulled into the driveway, we started to get that warm, fuzzy feeling of first love. A little hopeful, but afraid to think about the possibilities in case nothing came of it. Mind you, this place has a face only a mother could love, but we saw great potential. We started peering into each window like peeping Toms, and excitement grew with each glimpse. (Don't worry the house was empty.) Usually, when you look inside a foreclosure, you'll find that it either has been trashed, or is full of mold, or crumbling walls that it would need to be gutted in order to be made liveable again. But not this little gem. We walked around the house, peering into each window for another glimpse. With each glimpse, we fell more and more in love. The walls were all in tact, there was no animal feces lying around, the rooms were spacious. The outside needed more work than the inside.


It's in the country but close to town, which we wanted; it has acreage, which we wanted; it has an office area, which we wanted; a basement, a decent-sized kitchen. We checked everything off our mental list. We would have preferred a 3-bedroom, but we could manage with a 2-bedroom. The road is a little busy, and the view across the road is not too appealing, but before we left, we had already started making plans on how to solve that problem, and Hubby had already envisioned how and where he was going to lay out our garden, blue blueberry and raspberry bushes, and where the beef cow, pig and chickens would go.


We called our realtor and asked him to find out what he could on the house. We had no idea how much patience we would be needing. We had no idea how much we would see God working in this process. He was with us all the way.

To be continued....

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Oh, boo hoo

First of all, thanks to all of you who stopped by (and followed!) from Friday Follow.  It's fun and exciting to see the number of followers growing.  At the same time, it's also a little scarry.  I hope you won't feel it a waste of time to read my blogs.

Today, I'm a little depressed, and feel the need to do a little wallowing. Come along if you like. And, although this is Valentine's Eve, my depression  disappointment has nothing to do with that.

Hubby and I have just come from an auction for a house today.  We were  thisclose to getting it. (Jennee, I know this comes as a surprise to you, but we just found it on Thursday, and there you are in California having a blast. Anyway, don't worry, you won't have to pack up your stuff anytime soon!)  We were the last bid, and if you've ever been to a real estate auction, when the bids slow down, there is always a 2-minute break so everyone can "talk things over". (And, 9 times out of 10, it always screws the guy with the last bid.) Anyway, after the 2-minute break, a new bidder appeared on the phone with one of the real estate agents.  The price was run up higher than we were willing to go.  Waaaaaaah!

This seemed like the perfect house for us. You know how you can walk into a house, and it feels like home? That was this house. It sits on the edge of town on a half acre. There was a great place for a garden (at least, it looked like a great place even though it was covered with 15 inches of snow!) The dreams started quickly, and before we knew it, it was "our house". We had already figured out how we could turn the back yard into an enclosed "courtyard" with a raised garden for herbs. It was going to be gorgeous. We were going to be able to raise a few chickens.  It would provide everything we wanted.

 We started praying immediately that this would be the house where the Lord wanted us. Of course, I did have to go ahead and pray that if the Lord didn't want us there, then that would mean He had a better place for us.  So, now I know the answer, but I'm still disappointed.  I know He knows the future, but, it still seems like the perfect house.  It's just a small 3-bedroom ranch, needs some work, but, the deal has been done.
I will be OK about it tomorrow, but today I just want to wallow in disappointment, question God a little, and find myself some chocolate to gorge on. 

Here is a Bible verse that brings me great comfort:  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for HE WHO PROMISED IS FAITHFUL!  Heb. 10:23

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