Our "Miracle" Home! :)

Two disclaimers before you read :) 

I'm sorry it's so late! &
It's long. There is no way to shorten this story, I am sure of it. :) 

When Dustin and I came home from house searching the "main" day, he immediately sat down and started writing out this story. :) I was so impressed! And then he got busy, so I finished it. 

Enjoy!

01/16/2013

Dustin:  I can’t believe all the things that happened today. Even though I’m not a writer I feel like I need to just sit down and record on paper the things that happened.

Starting back last fall, Gina and I were making plans to move to L.A. for 2 years plus. We had come out here earlier and were excited about the church and were encouraged by the believers here. So I kind of casually told Gina that we are going to need two things if L.A. is where God wants us. We are going to need a place to stay, and some type of job/income. I hoped I wasn’t asking too much. Within about two weeks we had a temporary place to stay and a job lined up.

So….. I checked out homes on the web but didn’t commit to anything because we were encouraged to get to know the area better. That was good advice. Our first day out here was spent looking at the surrounding areas, and we looked in two apartments and the outside of a few more. We went home a bit overwhelmed with how there were so many different apartments and how expensive they were. I looked online for some more leads for our second day. We decided that since there seemed to be apartments on every block, we should just drive to the area that we liked and start calling numbers that were posted on the signs. Out here one block is very different from the next block, so looking online didn’t really give us a very good feel for what the neighborhood was like.

We drove up to a pretty community in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. We knew that area would be a nice half way point between the church activities and work. The first place we called was very expensive. The second place we call was too expensive as well, but I just asked if he per chance would know of any other place we could look at. I knew those agent guys kind of keep their heads together on what is on the marked, and I was hoping he could help. I told him we are looking for an apartment or small place for such and such amount of money. He right away said that the area we were in was known for its good school and that it would be really hard to find anything there, but he would check. In a little bit he got back with me of a little house in some ones back yard that was available for rent…..out here they call them back houses. Sounded good to me. Our own little houseJ without the noise of an apartment sounded like it would be worth looking at anyway. So we drove over there and took a look. We talked to the tenant in the front house and he took us back to the back house but wasn’t able to get in, so he called a guy and came back with a name and number of an agent that would come out and show us the house at 2:30. OK, we went down to the store and got a bite to eat, then to the grocery store for some more things but it was still only 12:00 or so. So we got in the car and I punched in the closest park into the gps and we went over there to kill some time. On my way there I got the question in my head that maybe I was supposed to call this guy, Sean , and schedule the appointment for 2:30. So I just called him to double check. He said he was already at the house and wandered where we were…… Uh, OK. Be right over!!!!

Sean (the Realtor) was the nicest guy you could imagine. He had a strong accent and a somewhat semi-professional way for being nice but wasn’t too pushy. His jaw was shaped similar to the one on Jay Leno. He opened the door and without even looking at Gina I knew she loved it!!!!!! It was just remodeled. New paint, new kitchen, new appliances, new bathroom, etc.  A little small with only one bedroom, but the living room was nice and open. After we talked about it for a while, we got an application from him and got in the car. After I shut the door I said,” WOW, now I guess it’s up to God!!” We were both smiling from ear to ear and we hadn’t even really talked to each other about it together really. I could tell by Gina’s comments that she liked it, and I did too but I was trying to not let my feelings show.

We went back to our friends place and filled out the applications to send to him……..with one big problem. We had to have my driver’s license number for the application, but I lost my license while driving in Mississippi. I had previously scanned a document into my computer that had the number on it, so I was able to find the number without having my license. The next question was the expiration date and I didn’t have that. OK, so I had talked to the sheriff’s office in MS and learned that they had found my license and had sent them back to the address that was on the front, New York. After a while I receive a text from my mother in law that she sent it in the mail and it was supposed to get here Tuesday. So I keep working on the other stuff and we get as much of it done as we can. Mr. Sean asked us to send copies of our driver’s license and our social security cards to him along with the applications. I told him the situation with my driver’s license, and he said he would go ahead but that I should get that to him as soon as possible.

Gina: Dustin’s next time talking to Mr. Sean, he said that he called Dustin’s boss that was on his application to confirm Dustin’s employment, but the guy who answered the phone didn’t know who Dustin was and told Mr. Sean that no, Dustin doesn’t work here. It’s funny now, but basically every time we thought we were getting somewhere, it turned out to be a dead end! As it turned out, Dustin talked to his boss & the guy who answered the phone and then also to Mr. Sean, explaining what happened. Mr. Sean was able to call again and get an answer that YES, Dustin does work here J

Mr. Sean had set up a meeting for us on Wednesday or Thursday to finalize things, but then postponed it because of getting sick. Not that we were glad he was sick, but it actually worked really well because of us not having all our ducks in a row. J He emailed Dustin, rescheduling the appointment for Friday at 9:30 am.  In this email he also said that he would need a copy of our social security cards, Dustin’s license, and a security deposit. 

Thursday was a crunch day. J That was the day he had emailed Dustin and we had none of those requirements.  I personally was at the point where I was praying that we’d be ok if we didn’t get the house at all.  Mr. Sean had told us earlier that for some reason he kept coming back to our application.  He kept running into problems with the other applications (“God? Is this You?” J ).  But yet we couldn’t understand why Mr. Sean stuck with us. He was extremely patient with us!

Back to Thursday.  I remember thinking that we MIGHT get Dustin’s license (since it was supposed to get here Tuesday in the first place), but that there is NO possible way that we’ll get our social security cards.  Dustin and I were both VERY sure that the box they we were in was in Dustin’s truck (I drove our car and Dustin drove the truck to MS, where we had his family’s Christmas.  From there we went in the car, and one of Dustin’s friends was going to drive his truck out for us a few weeks later .), which was states away! Even if the ss cards could be found, to overnight them in the mail wouldn’t get them here in LA till noon probably! I remember thinking it’d take a miracle for sure. 

Dustin called his buddy who’s driving our truck out, and asked him to just tear our packed truck apart and find those cards! So they started digging! Meanwhile he asked me to search the car, just in case.  I went out there PRAYING! J Dustin had told me what the box looked like (that held our documents), so I carefully looked in our backseat, even though I knew there was no box there. Nope. Nothing. I popped the trunk and carefully started removing things. Then I saw a box. I remember kind of holding my breath, just hooooping! I quickly took the whole box inside and tore into it! Here, out of who-knows-how-many-boxes-we-packed, WAS THE BOX WE NEEDED!!! In it I found our SOCIAL SECURITY CARDS!!!!! I quickly sent a picture to Dustin. J This was just amazing to me, because Dustin said he remembers that box being in the front seat of the truck. He doesn’t know why he moved it to the car because there was ROOM in the truck and/or teardrop camper!!! And. That box was the only one in the car. Everything else in there is just odds and ends.

A few hours later, we got the mail, and Dustin’s LICENSE came!!

The last hurdle was getting the security deposit.  I’m not even sure how to explain it because Dustin mainly worked with that, but the issue was with us not having set up a bank account out here yet. The SD had to be like anything but a personal check which was basically our only option.  After trying so many different routes, a guy from the church here pulled out the amount we needed and we reimbursed him!

We felt so overwhelmed with God’s GOODNESS AND FAITHFULNESS that night. We had so many miracles that day.

The next morning at 9:30 am, we happily walked into Mr. Sean’s office!  After a few signatures, some talking, another descriptive showing of the house and it’s features, Mr. Sean handed us the keys! 

Even through the whole process, we felt like we got to know Mr. Sean better! He mentioned once, while pointing heavenward, that maybe there was something bigger to us getting the house.  He also said he went so far as to think that there were people praying for us (The first people he guessed were our moms J )! I’m not sure if he’s a Christian or not, but we were blessed with how he tried so hard to help us. He was very patient and friendly through it all.

So now, we officially say…THIS is our miracle house!

We’re not moved in yet. We’re still waiting on a few things & details to work out, but we are oh so excited to make this home!  Hopefully we’ll officially move in this weekend or beginning of next week.

Also, Dustin has started his job! From what he has said so far, he likes it! For those who don’t know, he’s working with a company called “Ground Breakers Construction” (gbreakers.com ). An excavating company is the best way I can think of to describe it. He plays with “big boy toys”. J I think he’ll really like it once he gets the swing of things.

And me? I stay busy with random things! I went grocery shopping with Carita Witmer yesterday. That was interesting. If any of you want to move solely for the reason of cheap, good produce, move to CA. J And the other day I cleaned my house. People have been so nice and welcoming to us that it’s easy to feel at home (away from home) here. I’m sure homesickness will kick in, but honestly right now for the most part, I’m doing fine. That is the grace of God. J

I feel like since I’ve been here I’ve been challenged over and OVER again to just pray. Pray about everything and anything. And then to literally trust God. Leave it to Him, because it was SO stressful when it was all “us”. God has even answered prayers that I didn’t even pray.

And so the journey begins… J

Ps. Thank you to ALL who prayed for us these past few weeks! Please continue to pray as we start settling in! 

Oh. and thank you for taking the time to read this! :)