The Story of the Beach House: Part One in which Our Dreams Come True

  Our lives are lived in seasons. Some long, some short, but all of them matter and affect us in different ways. And in each of these seasons, God is present. He leads, He guides and He uses them to change and influence us. Today, I'd like to tell you about our season with the Beach House. 

 It started more than a quarter century ago, when we were a young family. We didn't have a lot of disposable income. I wouldn't say we were living paycheck to paycheck, but there wasn't much, if any, left over at the end of the month. Vacations weren't something we really considered. A friend from church had a house out by the Ocean and offered it to us as a place to stay for a week during the summer. I cannot tell you what a blessing this was! I LOVE being by the water. It brings me peace and joy. And being able to take my husband and son out to the beach, dig in the sand, ride in a boat, play a little putt putt golf was such a blessing. Just to relax as a family.

 A dream was born in our hearts. One day, we'd like to be able to have a house like this and be able to bless others with the ability to have family vacations they may not otherwise be able to. It was a dream for a distant future because, as I mentioned, there wasn't a lot of money floating around at our house, but the seed was planted.

 One of the special pieces of my relationship with my husband is that we tend to save deep, important conversations for long drives. More than ten years later, we had such a talk. We were on our way to my Grandparent's home up north and the nearly 3-hour drive gave us plenty of time. We had received a couple of bonuses from my husband's employer and had a substantial amount of money in our savings account with no clear direction about how we were to give or spend it. Leading up to this time, often when we had a chunk of money come in, God would put on our heart how we were supposed to use it, but this time there was nothing we were feeling led to. Was this the time? We talked it out from every side. Buying a house wasn't just a one-time expense. Yes, we had a down-payment, but we'd have to continue to pay on the mortgage as well as the utilities and taxes, and we knew by now that owning a home came with no end of additional expenses with regards to upkeep and maintenance. But, by the end of the drive, we felt unified in our desire and intention. You see, my husband was working long hours and often had to go away on extended work trips overseas. At one point, he was gone a month and home two for quite a while. We longed to have a place for dedicated family time, a place where we could deepen relationships and build memories. I started doing some research on the internet and found several houses for sale that I was interested in looking at. My husband had to work so it fell to me to do the home touring and on the ground footwork. The husband in the couple that shared their beach house with us so long ago was a real estate agent, so I reached out to him for a referral, and he pointed me to someone he knew and trusted in the beach town we were looking at. I called her up and arranged for myself and my four kids to tour homes for a day with her. We met up and I gave her the list of homes I was considering. We visited each one, and they were feasible, but none of them really stood out as being "the one." She suggested that we visit one more home she had listed just a couple of days before.

 We walked in downstairs and I could feel that something was different about this place. It felt special. As I came up the stairs inside and saw the ceilings, they were just like the ceilings at my grandparent's home when I was growing up. Something in my heart spoke, "This is the one." I turned and saw scripture on the walls, and it was like I could feel the Holy Spirit there. I found out later that the house had been owned by a friend of a friend who used it very much like we were intending to, as a place for their family to spend time together as well as opening it up to others in their church as a vacation spot. Many prayers had been spoken in that home, and you could feel it! I told the agent that we needed to think about it a bit and I took the kids over to the beach. While they played in the sand and the waves, I called my husband and talked it over. We decided that, without him even seeing it, I should put in an offer. So, the kids and I headed over to the real estate office and I started the paperwork. It had been a long day and one of the kids didn't make it all the way through the paperwork process...

 Our offer was accepted and before long, time came for escrow. But my husband had an important work trip to India and he couldn't be there in person. That's when we learned about powers-of-attorney and I had to break out my ancient skill of cursive. At that time, they didn't have e-sign and simple documents you scroll through on a computer. Nope, it was paperwork measured in inches and on each set, I had to sign, "I, first, middle, last name sign for first, middle, last name as attorney in fact." I don't know about you, but apart from signing my name, which in truth had devolved into more of a scribble, I hadn't used cursive since grade school. Yes, my handwriting was a strange mish-mash of printing and cursive, but full cursive was a thing of my past. But I was informed that, legally, it all had to be done in cursive, so I did it! That was a long afternoon!

Here's the Thing: Patience is a virtue and waiting on God's timing ALWAYS pays off. If we had tried to force the issue and buy a house way back when we first started dreaming of it, odds are it would have been a failed disaster. Instead, as you'll read about in future posts, God did INCREDIBLE things through it!