Little bit of faith.

With all of this flooding going on around us I wanted to talk about divine intervention and a little about my faith. From time to time I will talk about my faith. I'm not very good at it in fact most Sundays I even dread going to church. That doesn't mean I have lost faith. I have mentioned early on that my faith is deep-rooted in so many experiences. I would like to share with you some of those. Some of them have to do with this flood going on.

Lost deer.
I'm not an avid hunter. I like hunting. It's a very inexpensive way to get free range non hormonal natural meat. A family can have a freezer packed with 1 elk harvest. A deer is much smaller yet still produces a good amount of meat. On the second day of hunting season this past year I shot at a small buck. At first it didn't seemed fazed like I had missed. It hopped away and then bedded down. Thinking I might of hit it I walked down to the area it was. With all of the sagebrush and grass and me not wearing my glasses that day I couldn't see it. Only knew it was in a particular area. When I was approximately 10 feet away it jumped up and ran off. Thinking I had missed I waited for my cousin to catch up with me. When he did he informed me that he thought I did hit it but it might of been a gut shot which means it can live for hours even days. With that in mind we started searching for blood. My cousin found some and thought the deer had went to our right and down hill. I started searching with no luck. After a few minutes and being worried for the sake of the deer suffering I decided to offer a silent prayer. Both my cousin and I grew up on prayer and both had talked about our faith and the power of prayer. Soon after I felt I should change direction. I went through some very dense brush. I looked around decided to go back to where we first saw some blood. I took two steps up the hill and there was my deer. It startled me. It had been gut shot and I did have to shoot it again to make sure it was dead. Coincidence? I don't think so. I was avoiding that area until after that prayer was said. Yeah it's not the best prayer story I have but it's still a favorite of mine.

Lost credit card.
To explain this story  I need to go back a few years. My late cousin Jack (not real name) became a thief before he died. We never locked our doors until Jack robbed us on Sunday while we were at church. It wasn't until weeks later we realized who tge thief was. It wasn't alot but it was enough to lose all trust with Jack. On a Summer day decades ago we were planning on going to a family reunion Jack had stopped by the house but left soon after. Before leaving to our reunion my mom could not find her purse. I suggested we say a prayer and soon after my mom found the purse buried in the laundry hamper. It was missing money. We think Jack had done that before he left. After jack died at a young age of 20 I would sometimes feel his presence. About a year ago I had lost my credit card. I had just learned some financial clues about credit cards and needed it to complete my plans of getting out of debt (which I did 3 months later) I said a prayer but still was having no luck. I eventually thought of Jack and said out loud, "well maybe Jack should find my credit card. He needs to make restitution for steeling." I went down stairs and on top of our laundry hamper was my credit card. As if someone had gently placed it there.

Lost glove.

Prayer is sort of my last resort when it comes to lost items. In this case I prayed more of a way for me to accept this glove being lost so I could go buy a new pair. We were getting ready to take our snowmobile out for the first time. My wife was in charge of getting our kids ready while I got all of our equipment together. The last item I couldn't find was one of my wife's glove. I looked under seats around the house and tore the car apart looking for that glove. Eventually I declared my defeat and as a last resort I asked my heavenly Father if he would help. I also said that I didn't think it was worth his time but it was my last resort and I would be more than willing to buy another pair. I just didn't want to. I went back to the exact spot of my van that I had just been searched. There laid out in PLAIN SITE was that glove! I couldn't believe it. Unless it was hidden in the blanket I just moved I have no way of explaining it.

I have several other stories and I love telling them. My basic reason for sharing those with you is to also tell you our experience with divine intervention while buying our home. This recent flooding going on in northern Utah has reminded me how blessed we are even though at times we felt we had been betrayed.

When we started our search for our new home my main concern was what feels like home. Although it would of been nice to live on the hill or in a house with more square footage we both agreed to buy what feels right not what looks the best. Some good advice for alot of artificial wealthy home buyers who are buying for looks and pride not for what feels like home.

Im just saying.

Our first house we looked at (we will call the blue housr) was a gorgeous  2 story beautiful newer home. Granite counter tops a deep 3 car garage with plenty of space for all our storage needs. Trust me when I say my friends and my family would of been envious. We passed on making an offer and moved on. Our second house we looked at had a smaller garage a nice back patio upgraded kitchen small bedrooms  (that was a downside) and a big finished basement. What threw us off though was we went through a doubled door and there was another kitchen. We were confused. Apparently that's in quite a few houses. There was also an extra bathroom and 2 additional bedrooms. We decided to pass until our realtor brought up the fact that the property was a good idea for our buisness. The additional un needed kitchen dI'd have a separate entrance. We were excited.
We decided that we wanted this house and we wanted to put an offer on it. Before I tell the next part if the story I want to let you know how hot the market was at this time. There was one other house we looked at but decided to pass. 2 days later it was under contract. The blue house we looked was under contract that weekened. There was an additional house we looked at with so many bad signs. Cat pee smell. Neighbors who had an entire driveway full of cars. Under contract again just a few days later. Most houses in this area were only on the market for 2 weeks. The house we were putting our offer on had been on the market for almost 90 days which to us meant  we had a good shot at getting this house. What happened next makes me question if divine intervention pursuade our decision.
A couple of days later their realtor let our realtor know that they received 2 other offers that same night. To this day I feel like their realtor lied to us. I'm not sure but it doesn't make sense that after 90 days all of a sudden they get 3 offers? My first red flag popped up when I heard that. Something didn't feel right.They didn't meet our deadline for a response and when they did respond they asked us if we wanted to revise our offer. Can I just stop right there. This was the second red flag I received durring this whole ordeal. This is exactly why I hate the real estate market. Realtors and homeowners are constantly raising the prices through tactics such as these. Some people are always winning and some our losing. You do NOT win if you don't get the house for LOWER than what they advertised. I feel like their realtor again created a fake 3rd person to have a bidding war. Because I felt that, I was very careful with my revised offer. I don't care if the market was hot I care about what feels right to me! This house felt right.

We didn't get it.

In fact we were even hopeful that the offer would fall through. Houses that went under contract after we looked at them did fall through. Again anxiety gets in the way of logic for some and they put too much trust into the system.

Moving on.

Sorry this is a long story.

So while we were hoping and waiting to get that House we went to another house. Again this house was beautiful. Nice Upgrades huge unfinished basement. Nice little old lady who was ready to move on. We loved that house and were ready to make an offer. But again Devine intervention steps in and redirects us. We felt we should at least keep our next appointment and look at one more house. I mean what could it hurt. We found the house we wanted right. So we go to this other house and weirdest thing happened. By the time we were done with that House we didn't want either of them. Turns out we had forgotten what we really wanted. A finished basement and an open floor plan. It didn't matter if it had upgrades. We wanted something that felt right.

The 3rd time we went looking we started at the house we are now living. Now to say we went through the front and a light shined down and we looked at each other and said this is it....Yeah right!! My first impression was it's nice but not what I'm looking for. My wife was the same. She was unsure. It was pretty plain. Lower asking price than all the others we wanted but beautiful better views then all of them. We decided we'd probably like the other house so we moved on and looked at it. The last house we looked at had the best upgrades. The whole entire outside of the house was just beautiful. My first thought (a dangerous thought we all get) was people would be envious. This could be it.

Again, Devine intervention steps in. The house felt enclosed to me. They had put way too many bedrooms. I wish they would of just left some open spaces. The living room felt tiny. The last thing that made me not want this house was the basement. Good job at putting a home theater in but really?? No natural lighting and to top it all off. A sump pump and the smell of new carpet and paint.
We sat down my wife wondering my opinion was. I told them it again didn't feel
Right. It was too enclosed and I didn't trust their disclosure. What's funny to me is what my realtor said next. He was frustrated. He compared both houses and told us that this one was the better of the two. It was worth more. I told him it just didn't feel like home.

On our way home we talked about the two houses. Pros and cons and we both agreed it's not about the value as much as it is the feeling we had. The first home we saw that day wasn't perfect it had it's flaws but it felt more like home then any other house. The second house was nice and even though it held more physical value the spiritual and personal growth value was not there.

There is a canyon that we go through on our way to our old home. It's about a 10-15 minute drive. Before we were out of that canyon headed home it was like a lights witch had turned on and both of us knew which house we thought was right for us. We ate lunch to celebrate and called our realtor with our decision. He wasn't thrilled but we didn't care. We realized that although we wanted to buy a house with equity we had already been blessed with a large profit on the sale of our old home. We had some leway thay others didn't. We were out of debt, had good income, and my inspirational credit card loan and cash back program was working better than I thought it would. With alot of faith we would be all right.
I'll skim down the next few months. They were challenging. Moving getting the house ready living on 4 hours or less each night and even my parents who agreed to let us stay with them for a couple of months changed their minds 2 weeks before our move out date. It wasn't easy but I know the Lord blessed us. Our realtors partner let us use his barn for our  storage. We called several apartment complexes trying to get someone to rent to us. None would for just 2 months. Finally my wife called this new apartment complex and the head property manager answered. He was so helpful. He agreed to rent to us! My brothers and friends of ours helped us move up to the 3rd story apartment . My boss and my hr mananger were so helpful in getting all my paperwork I needed. My realtor was great and so was my loan officer. I am great ful for all of them.

After we moved in we discovered even better blessings. 2 of our neighbors have all girls. We have all girls. 2 other neighbors have more girls. First of all I'm not the only dad without a son and second my girls have someone to play with outfront. They were not even allowed to play out front at our old house. Only my oldest daughter had someone her own age to play with.

The last and final thought I have and the main point in writing this is with all of this flooding going on we have been dry. We are built on a hill and the land we are on slopes slightly to the south and to the west. I consider that now a blessing where as before I questioned why we couldn't have our 1st Choice home. Now I know. That home was in the flood zone. They may have had their basement flood which would of been disastrous for us. We could of had our buisness destroyed. Our inventory was suppose to be in the basement. The house my realtor wanted us to buy? The neighborhood was on the news due to flooded basements. That house probably too flooded. It's exciting how things just work out.

We always prayed that we would find our house not get the house we wanted and I know the Lord directed us to the house that fit us best.