I am a 52 year old man and one of the many things that has never happened is … I have never owned a house. What??? Are you kidding me??? Nope … I have never owned a house. All that changed a few weeks ago.

If you know me, once I get a thought in my head, things advance rapidly … sometimes too rapidly.

The process began with me just thinking it might be a good idea to start praying about buying a house. I told Arlyn, “let’s start praying and thinking about buying a house next year.”

That led to me looking through Zillow at homes; then deciding to look for a mortgage company just for fun; then deciding to find a realtor just for fun; then we found ourselves looking at houses.

We went from buying one “in a year” to actively looking immediately. I would find one in our “financial range” that matched our desires, then send it to our realtor. I am not sure about your market, but in our market, homes are being sold within 24-48 hours. It is crazy how fast they are moving. It is most definitely a sellers market currently.

We bid on 3 different houses and didn’t get a single one. We bid on a 4th house and God gave us our first home as a family. It is a little nerve wracking; we have already had our first plumbing “leak”; I still have to remind myself that I can no longer call our landlord; and it will take awhile to get used too. However, I am grateful to God that He opened this exact house in our price range, met our “requirements”, and gave Benjamin a little blessing as well(play set left in the backyard by the previous homeowners).

When things have been up and down this past year; when different struggles have happened over the past 4 years; when life as been as it has over the last 20+ years; when days like today can be challenging; it’s a blessing to remember that God has already given me so much more than I deserve and so much more than I could have ever expected.

God does answer dreams. God does provide blessings. God does go above and beyond in all.

A very short message to remind myself that God is always in control and that God will bless you when you least expect it.

Thank you Lord for being so good to me!

P.S. When you’re ready to buy a home, use Jeffrey.Long@churchillmortgage.com for your mortgage. If you live in NWA, use realtor.terrichadd@gmail.com as your Realtor. Both of them made the purchase seamless, painless and enjoyable!