PART 5: A funny thing happened on the way to St Louis....

When he opens no one will shut,
When he shuts no one will open.
Isaiah 22:22

We continue our saga (remember, this is the short version!), where we left off here.

Again, it seems good to reiterate that buying a home, or buying this home, is really not of utmost importance in our lives at all. We feel believers should apply the principle that Paul lays out in 1 Corinthians 7:29: But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that ... they that buy, as though they possessed not; And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away. After all, this world is not our home!

But our whole experience with this move has been one of learning to wait on the LORD, learning to really say, "Not my will but thine be done," and leaving it up to him, and following. And really desiring that his will will be done in our lives, recongnizing that he really is our shepherd leading us, as long as we recongnize our need for his leadership, NOT leaning on our own understanding, but acknowledging him in all our ways, and seeking him first. That really is our desire, and that was really the only way we could persevere with our 4 month escrow with our sanity. Our options in Wisconsin seemed to be such that we needed to move, and that is what led to the job search which seemed to be taking us to St Louis. But really, the Lord was taking us through a crash course in following him! It just seemed to be via St Louis!

So, we left off where the loan officer said, "I'm sorry, you're not getting the loan."

Well, since we already let the cat out of the bag, that we ARE in St Louis, our bright readers must realize that something happened to change the situation after the loan officer called and told us "You're not getting the loan." What is so weird is that it was nothing we did or tried to do that changed it, but it did, kind of, change!

When she called, I dashed out the door and went to walk in the backyard, as it was relatively quiet. Dave, of course, was in St Louis, working. I was looking around at the changing trees, enjoying the November breeze which hinted at the arrival of winter.

You see, as she said the words, "You're not getting the loan," all I could think of is,

"We're not moving to St Louis.
We're staying in Wisconsin.
It's over!"

So as she explained the different criteria and what had happened, I was mentally already done with the conversation. Now, I was trying to adjust to the new plan of not moving. How could we make things work in Wisconsin? As she spoke, I was thinking, "Maybe we could extend the basement here, and maybe put a breezeway to the garage there." I was back in Wisconsin. Yes, it would be rough with Dave finding a local job, but the waiting was over.

But I had to focus on the conversation; I was still on the phone.

"You're not getting the loan. The problem is Dave's length on the job. It's only been about 2 months and it's only a 6 month contract, and if he were to get the loan, and then lose his job, what would happen then." (Foreshadowing alert #3)

She was genuinely disappointed and found it hard to tell me, but I assured her that we had just been waiting on the LORD and trusting that he would show us if we should move or not, and we would be fine with whatever he directs us to do.

Thinking that I should at least make an effort to hold up my end of the conversation, I asked, "Well, how much time on the job would they require to approve the loan?" while I compared the level of the garage entry to the mudroom.

"It would have to be at least 6 months on the job," was the answer.

That made it pretty cut and dried. No loan. He did not have 6 months on the job, and that was the criteria, and it could not be changed. Wasn't that the answer we had been waiting for? We were out of escrow! Yipee!

I compared the orientation of the garage roof with the main house.

"Hmmm," I mused aloud, as I counted how many paces from the back of the house to the big maple tree, "...it just seems strange. Everyone Dave works with is on these kind of contracts, often just 6 month at a time, or a year, and they just keep renewing them indefinately..." 12 feet, 13 feet... "and he's been working this way for 10 years."

As I checked the diameter of the tree, to see how much work it would be to tear it out, she asked, "Wait a minute....what did you just say?"

"He's been working this way for 10 years?" I answered. Why would she ask me that?

"Let me look here... didn't you already send a letter explaining that?" she asked. "Boy, your file is HUGE! Yes, here it is. I'm going to send this back to underwriting, and I'll call you right back."

And we hung up.

We were back in escrow.

My thoughts of remodeling suddenly were halted. I called Dave to relay the strange conversation to him. Before we were done, the phone signaled that new call was coming in. It was the loan officer.

"I sent this to underwriting again, but they are still denying the loan. But I think they are wrong about this, and I spoke to my supervisor and he agrees, so I am escalating it, and it will take at least a week to get an answer. I can't promise anything. They rarely overturn the underwriter's decision."

To make a long story short, we were back to waiting. Our hopes for finally knowing were dashed to bits, as we waited for the higher-ups to respond. After a few days wait, we learned that the higher up was in Hawaii for the week. So, back to the same old thing....waiting....clueless.

Ever hoping to save some time, Dave and I had this idea: Since we are going to the higher ups anyway, and since we are waiting anyway, could the loan officer also mention to the higher ups the basement waterproofing issue, and could they decide if we were good to go with that. (You may recall that we accidentally learned the house had work done on the basement which carried a 20 year guarantee. The bank was requiring that the basement be waterproofed, but we had not received confirmation if the previous work had been accepted as sufficient.) So, we asked our loan officer if she could get that in the pipeline as well.

We waited. We spent more time with friends as we were able. Dave's weekly commute to St Louis continued, usually by 7 hour drive each way each weekend. He was getting tired.

Finally the ambiguous response from the higher ups was recieved: "We're going to move ahead with this loan." The loan officer felt encouraged that this was a big deal. Rarely does a decision by underwriting get reversed. However, we were wondering, "What does 'move ahead' mean? And also, what did they say about the basement waterproofing issue?"

Well, we finally learned that the bank was requiring an inspection to determine if the basement was waterproofed. Our research indicated that this was kind of tricky to do, because if there was no rain, it would appear to be waterproofed. However, the Lord took care of that, because there were several inches of rain 24 hours before the basement inspection could be done!

No, it was not waterproofed.

The inspector from the waterproofing company explained that the warranty did not cover the leakage because it was from a portion of the basement which was not worked on. The amount of work required would come to $3,500.00.

Again, because this house was being sold "as is," this seemed to mean that we were at an impass. We did not have the money. In fact, the four months of escrow had caused us to pay for many non-refundable inspections and services. Humanly speaking, we felt discouraged that this could not have all been disclosed from the start, because we had already sank so much money into this deal. But we did see that the Lord had led us step by step through the process. Hmm.

Our realtor explained the situation to the sellers. We could pay a very nominal amount, but not $3,500.00. We were past the contingency period, so we expected to also lose our earnest money. Unexpectedly, the response from the sellers was quick in coming.

The sellers responded that
they would pay for the basement repairs!

So, again, we were back in escrow. Again, Dave was revitalized to continue his commute in hopes that we would soon all be in St Louis. Again, I seriously considered packing up to move.

The waterproofing company said they could begin work as soon as they had some rainy days, because our job was an inside job. So we waited for more rain.

When the waterproofing company was ready to begin work, there was a mix up with the sellers which caused the waterproofers to pack up and leave, saying they needed more clarification before they could begin work. Ug.

A new closing date was set.

The work was completed.

We packed up our stuff.

And thus and so and by and by, we closed on the house.

There wasn't anything really exciting or thrilling about the close, except, as the reader may surmise, it was pulled off without much stressing out on our part, since we had been conditioned to constantly assume something would backfire, and maybe things would be put on hold or not go through. It was definitely a time of just waiting for the LORD to work out the details.

We hope to finally close this series with an epilogue, which will wrap up some of the foreshadowing for you so you can keep it straight. Stay tuned; it gets even better!

Part 4: A funny thing happened on the way to St. Louis

I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

Psalm 130:5,6

Well, for those of you who have been following this series, this section will be a little easier on the eyes, as we will bullet-point much of the action. Here goes:

• Next up was the appraisal.
• The appraisal included an inspection of sorts, and if the house didn't cut the mustard, the deal was off unless things were fixed.
• We had concerns that without some basic simple cleaning and repairs, the house would not cut the mustard.
  
• Dave informs me that its supposed to be "cut the muster" not mustard, and I am so embarassed. I want to assure everyone that I really didn't think you could cut mustard, though one of my children does now -- AKK!
  
• The house was as-is, so the seller would do no work on the house.
• Since the loan hinged on the appraisal, we pondered: Should we get permission from the sellers to do some cleaning and repairs (cracked windows, missing vent covers, peeling paint)? (We were told this was permissible.)
  
• We tried to work out an arrangement with the sellers, but were not able to.
  
• We realized: Duh, if we want the LORD to show us his will, let's not force anything. We said, "Order the appraisal."
  
• The week of the appraisal, the area received torrential rains.
• The appraisal was A.O.K. except for the basement. There was some water in the basement. If the basement was shown to be waterproofed, it would be approved.
• I should point out that the appraisal demonstrated that taking a trip to St Louis, fixing windows and peeling paint, etc. would have made NO difference in the outcome of the appraisal. The only thing that came up was something we could do nothing about!
  
• Waterproofing the basement would cost $3,500. 00 .
  
• We didn't have $3,500.00.

There are other interesting details I am leaving out, such as the fact that the basement had been waterproofed, and the sellers provided documentation to prove it, and the waterproofing carried a 20 year transferrable warranty. And that the loan officer assured us that would be good enough for the underwriters (foreshadowing alert). But I am jumping ahead.

As we waited, the Lord really did refining work in our lives through the waiting. You know how the native Americans could find a use for just about every single part of a bison they hunted? Well, the LORD can use ALL of our circumstances to accomplish his will.

For example, we knew we had to be content. Ok. We were content.

Here's what we were content with:

a) Staying in Wisconsin and Dave finding a local job, or,

b) Moving to St Louis.

However, here is what we had:

c) No idea what would happen.

C. was not our choice, but that is what the Lord wanted to use in our lives, with all the implications thereof. Just pressing on with daily things and NOT knowing. Not renovating the house (so we could more easily function as a family of 15 in it), not fixing it up as a normal home for a family of 4 (so we could sell it). As the seasons began to change, I started pondering: where will we put the snow suits, boots, scarves, and mittens? (These were things which we had already systematized and had many ideas for improvement, but none of that was conducive to marketing a house.)

There was a lot of time that we spent waiting for emails and phone calls during this time. We continued to hover in "maybe" mode Dave continued his weekly commute to St Louis. Fall began to set in, the days became shorter. We continued to wonder, not just when would we move, but when would this all be over??????

Our perspective got a much needed improvement after receiving a phone call from a friend one afternoon. She was asking for prayer. Her 10 year old daughter had begun staggering, vomiting and having extreme headaches. She was life-flighted to Madison where they found she had ruptured a blood vessel in her brain. The blood vessel was not supposed to be in her brain, but had never caused problems until now. Her prognosis was uncertain, and brain surgery was a possibility.

We began to pray, and asked to be called if anything changed.

At 3 AM, we received the call that their daughter was going in for surgery. It seemed like a long wait, but later that morning, we heard that surgery appeared to have been successful.

Next we heard that some of her organs were showing signs of shutting down.

In ICU, she was in critical but stable condition, sedated, on a ventilator, kept chilled and loosely covered to help prevent swelling in the brain. Her organs seemed to be improving a bit, but the doctors were hoping for quicker progress.

The concern with waking her up from sedation was the pressure in her head. It was carefully monitored, and found to not be decreasing as they would like. So, they continued to keep her sedated, and her parents rarely left her side.

The days passed in ICU. Her dad would lean her baby brother over her feet, and he would happily tickle her toes. But her only movement came from the ventilator, which kept her breathing like clockwork.

Her mom and dad really leaned on the LORD and were almost constantly by her side. While the hospital staff was always positive and helpful, no promises were made. She developed pneumonia after some time on the ventilator.

As the days passed, the family hoped to get closer to waking her up, but there seemed to be something always coming up that made it not such a good idea. One night, her mom told me, "She's just got to get better."

Regardless, the family had assurance, that no matter what, their daughter knew the LORD Jesus Christ, had repented of her sins, and was safe in the LORD, whether she lived or died. It was in the LORD's hands.

But the day came to wake her up from sedation, and she opened her eyes. She was unable to speak because of the ventilator, but she continued to take baby steps towards recovery. There were good days and hard days. There was concern about how much, if any, damage was done to her brain.

Finally the ventilator tube was removed. She began to walk and talk again. She went home.

Today she has no apparent long term damage, praise the LORD!

The LORD used that family's trial in many ways, including in our family. How much more we realized what it is to be in the LORD's hands. Not to know either way, but to just wait on the LORD. The other stuff will happen later; for now, wait.

So we kept waiting. And waiting. You know, it seemed like it took forever for the loan officer to get back to us.

We realized why when she finally got back to us.

"Never mind the issue about the waterproofing....

I've still been working on loan approval.

I'm really sorry, but

you're not getting the loan after all...."

Part 3: A funny thing happened on the way to St Louis....

"Go to now, ye that say,
Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city,
and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.
For what is your life?
It is even a vapour,
that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
For ye ought to say,

If the Lord will, we shall live,
and do this or that."
James 4:13-14

Again, we continue with our testimony of "the long, dark escrow of the soul" which began here and continued here.

(This is a lengthy prologue, before getting back to our story....)

It was 1997.

It was our second day of our first trip to southern Mexico.

We had risen extra early that morning, because a delay on our first day cut our travel short. The drive to our final destination required a total of 24 hours on the road, but we had only gone 6 hours the first day.

As we approached mid-day on our second day of travel, we felt optimistic that we were making good time. Soon we entered a little town, the name of which I cannot recall. Traffic slowed, and smiling soldiers advised us we would have to stop for a parade.

We shifted to park; the van was still running, the air conditioner working hard against the heat and humidity. We waited a few minutes, as the temperature in the van slowly rose. Without the van's forward motion, our air conditioner was no match against the tropical heat of mid day.

We looked out the windows for clues that traffic would soon begin to move. No such clues.

Our tour guides, Uncle Bob and Aunt Jane, whom we were following, got out of their pickup truck and opened the tailgate. They began to make lunch. Right on the road.

For as far as we could see, the other stopped travelers were emerging from their vehicles, visiting, stretching their legs, or walking to the gas station to buy sodas.

Now this town was really a crossroads for several regional highways, so there were hundreds of vehicles stopped that day. I suppose if you could see the town from above, the vehicles would form a big asterisk, with its tangents steadily growing longer...

Eventually, we realized that the "parade" was actually a protest against the government! The townspeople, assisted by the soldiers, had secured a captive, yet inattentive, audience. Somewhere many yards away, we heard people with bullhorns. But on the highway, it was time for lunch, or a walk to the restrooms, or a game of tag for the children...

We were able to get to a phone and contact our hosts, who informed us, "Don't worry, they'll probably be done by dark."

So, back at the van, we ate our lunch. We watched and marveled at all the other content trapped travelers. Nobody complained. There was no outrage, no horn honking. It was as if we were in a different world, where people realized that things like this happen. There were no assurances that you'd arrive at your destination at a certain time. We were starting to realize the wisdom of a basic piece of advice that the missionaries always offer to first-time visitors to Mexico.

"You have to be flexible."

==================================

Believe me, it takes much less time to read these long posts than to relive the actual events! We thank the Lord for the lessons we learned through this time of waiting for Him to show us His will!

As we finally entered escrow at the end of August, we had the feeling that it would not be long until the family would be moved down to St Louis. So we began to allow ourselves the mental gear-shifting that that would entail:

1. We'd start packing boxes. Packing up things that were non-essentials would help eliminate clutter, except, wait, where do we put the boxes? Hmmmm....
2. We'd start un-Kleining the house. Kleining a house can mean many things: painting walls tangerine or purple, installing two sets of triple bunks in each bedroom, hanging parasols of wet mittens above the dining room table, or planting three dozen tomato plants in the backyard. We knew enough about home-selling to realize it was time to un-Klein. Having a couple of vintage wringer washers, or a couple of school buses, in our front yard, affected a style of decor which did not seem to attract the average homebuyer.
   

However, we didn't get too far into these tasks before our loan officer called with some news...

Now, these were the early days of the mortgage crisis, and lenders were really cracking down on any signs of impending foreclosure...the most obvious of which is a late payment. A late payment? Why would we have a late payment? We had never had a late mortgage payment.... that is, until right before we set out to purchase a house during the early days of the mortgage crisis!!

We had always made timely payments using our bank's online payment system. It was a no-brainer. However, on one occasion, the mortgage payment amount fluctuated. Dave noticed that the system just paid the set amount. So, to ensure we always paid the amount due, Dave utilized a payment feature that would make the system pay whatever the "amount due" was for each month (rather than the same amount each month)

However, the first month he used it, it bombed and read the amount due as zero. No payment was made at all.

The bank promptly notified us of the missed payment...at our previous address in Texas (where we lived when we got the loan for the house!). Of course, mail forwarding didn't work after 3+ years in Wisconsin. (Don't ask me why they wouldn't think we'd be living in the house for which we got the mortgage, but they did not. )

So, by the time Dave discovered the error, we had been staked out by private investigators, checking to see if we were still in the house! When Dave realized the glitch, a phone call to a friendly bank representative at that time, way before our escrow began, seemed to have cleared all this up. Our bank recognized it was an honest computer error, and they assured Dave it would be rectified.

However, none of that was not showing up on our credit report, which our loan officer promptly informed us. To any lender, our name was mud. Because of the massive amounts of loans in foreclosure, our computer error had made the sirens go off, we were assumed to also be on the brink of foreclosure, etc. A few phone calls to our lender to try to get to the bottom of this availed nothing.

It was like peeling a big FDIC insured onion.

We explained this to our loan officer, and she told us not to worry, just wait until the next month's payment hits our credit report. At that time, she would pull a current credit report, and things should be fine.

So we waited.

We began getting strange letters from various sources, giving offers of help to avoid our pending foreclosure. Ug. Apparently, word was getting out.

At this point, we began to realize that we had better put a hold on packing, and just be flexible, and let the Lord show us what to do. Of all the times for us to have a computer error like this, He had allowed it to be right during the loan approval process. There was nothing we could do. We realized it was no accident as far as God was concerned. Maybe this was the Lord closing the door on the move to St Louis. Maybe He had a better plan.

In the meant time, Dave's weekly commute to St Louis continued. Daily, we battled keeping content and being patient. We could do nothing to move forward but wait for the next month's timely payment to hit our credit report. But we had much less assurance that we would be moving at all. Un-Kleining was on hold, because the Kleining was essential for daily living.

The house in Wisconsin needed many things to accommodate our family size, but we knew that we needed to ensure we had resources for closing and moving expenses...IF we moved to St Louis.

The garden and grounds, garage, etc. needed to be decluttered to make the house more attractive to buyers, since we would not be living in the country any more...IF we moved to St Louis.

(But if the St Louis deal fell through, then all that "clutter" would come in kinda handy...)

This was really a time of wrestling with the circumstances. But there was really nothing to wrestle with. We simply had to wait.

So, we returned to the reality of when you have to wait, you just have to keep doing what you are supposed to do. We got up in the morning, we had devotions, we prayed, we did chores, we cooked, we ate, we studied, we worked, we shopped, we had campfires, we got together with friends.

For some time, our friends knew of our possible move to St Louis...pending the sale of our house, pending the purchase of a place down there...pending.... Weeks went by with no news. "We may be moving, we don't know yet." When introducing ourselves to people we learned a pretty succinct way of describing ourselves:

"We are from Wisconsin and we may be moving to St Louis,
if the LORD wills."

During daily devotions, we often sang a song recorded by Steve Green that has become a Klein favorite:

I don't have to have the plan in hand
I don't have to have the end in sight
All I need to do is follow You,
wherever You lead,
and do what You've asked me to.

Trusting in You with all my heart
Following You all my days
Whether I can or can't understand
I'll acknowledge You in all my ways.

Though I am pressed on every side,
I am not in despair
My faith in You will carry me through
Though I may not see where You're leading me...

We would sing that song everyday, and just smile at each other, because the words rang so true! We knew we were on a ride.... with the Lord. He would do what was best.

So, we just left it with the Lord. And for a while, it did not seem like it was going to happen. We continued to get ominous junk mail, the days went by without a word from our loan officer. Dave's weekly commute made him weary.

Nearly every day, we had family discussions about the contingencies and possibilities. But it came down to waiting. That was what the Lord was teaching us. We often told the kids, "It really does not seem like we are going to get that house in St Louis." We said that because we knew the value of them learning to be flexible. It is so important in life! We all needed to remember that. The main thing was being where God wanted us. Wisconsin was fine for us, and we knew the Lord would make it work somehow. If the Lord did not want us to move, we did not want to move either.

On one day, it was Rebekah's birthday, we were all enjoying a lovely fall day at the state park, playing volleyball and making sandcastles. As we did nearly daily, we were chatting about things related to the move. We kept everyone aware of how Daddy's job was going, what he was doing, and the latest on the house and loan. Again I told the children, "I really don't think there is any way we are getting that house in St Louis."

Just then, I got a call on the cell phone. It was the loan officer.

"Your August payment finally hit, and your credit report looks great.
You are approved.
I know you are getting the loan."

I was soon on the phone to Dave who was in St Louis and gave him the latest update. At that moment, it seemed we were "go", but we knew there were some more details to be taken care of first. We figured it would be wise to still say, "If the LORD wills..."

We tentatively thought we would be looking at the end of October, give or take...

Since it was mid-September, we thought the end of October was pretty tentative.

But it was not tentative enough....!

The story continues here.

Part 2: A funny thing happened on the way to St. Louis

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."
2 Corinthians 5:7

This is the continuing story of our move to St Louis, which began here.

This is written not because we think it is the biggest deal in the world, and it may not be fascinating to anyone who happens to read it. It may put some people to sleep! But because this time was so full of God's obvious directing and sustaining, and we want to remember his faithfulness to us. As I look through my wrinkled list of escrow events and write them out, it brings me new encouragement! Wow!

======

So, we marveled at how quick the job had come and that it was in St Louis of all places, and rejoiced and packed Dave's stuff for his new job. As soon as he drove off, I (Debbie) hit the internet and started searching for house possibilities.

As mentioned, several counties near and including the county of St Louis have rules regarding occupancy of residences. Even if you own the house, you may not exceed the number of people per bedroom which the town stipulates. In many towns, the standard is no more than 2 people per bedroom. For many families, this is not any kind of an issue at all. But for those of us with double digit size families, it does not leave many reasonable options.

So, with the house we nearly bought, which was located about 4o minutes from downtown St Louis, we were outside the area where bedrooms were an issue. That house unavailable, we decided to search in cities within St Louis County which had differing requirements. Even though this ruled out a country home, it would help reduce Dave's commute time. So we focused on a city not far from his office which, instead of specifying a number of bedrooms, only specified square footage. In this town, our family would be required to have a house with at least 2,300 square feet on the main floor.

So, combining this with our price range, we were left with just a few choices. They all had issues, but we tend to gravitate towards houses like that. Though the size of both houses was very attractive, one in particular really seemed like a good fit. It had a huge family room addition, cozy fireplace, great windows, nice big lot and was only 10 minutes from Dave's office. But it was 9 feet too small for the town requirements.

We initially ruled it out, but then decided to give the city a call and see if there was a way to extend a closet or something in order to make the 2,300 square feet.

After explaining our family size, the clerk respectfully told me she had to talk to the supervisor. She got back to me saying that he would give us special permission to get this house if we wanted it. "What if we had more children?" I asked. She explained that if more children were born to us, we would not be required to increase square footage; it's a one-time deal. Phew! The clerk seemed very respectful and friendly and not incredulous or rude, and this seemed to be an extra indicator we were on the right path.

Then we thought about the bus. I called right back and mentioned the, um, bus. Would that be a problem?

The answer: as long as it was parked off the street, no problem. She didn't miss a beat, and continued to be pleasant, almost like the bus issue comes up all the time.

Dave took another good look at the house with our long-suffering realtor. It really looked like a great fit. So, considering the other issues the house had, we submitted our offer, along with our pre-qualification letter from the bank, and a security deposit. We made our offer contingent on a home inspection, because of the obvious issues with the house we had observed. The house was "as is" with seller to do no repairs. Over a few days, the sales price numbers bounced back and forth, and we soon had a deal. We were in escrow. It was August 27, 2009.

Dave called our bank to get things rolling, and I started thinking about hunting down boxes.

Before we could begin packing though, Dave received word from our bank that our pre-qualification did not mean what we thought it meant.

We thought the pre-qualification letter meant we were pre-qualified because we could afford payments on both the Wisconsin house and the St Louis house.

However, what the bank meant wa$, if we have 6 month$ of mortage payment$ $aved up for the Wiscon$in hou$e and 6 month$ of mortgage payment$ $aved up for the new hou$e in $t Loui$, plu$ our down payment and clo$ing co$t$, then we were pre-qualified.

With that new definition, which was apparently a new loan stipulation that had been enacted quite recently and which had shut down a lot of sales contracts, we were out of the home buying business (unless we sold our Wisconsin house...and during the wait for that, Dave would be commuting each week to St Louis!!)

"Be sure to call us back if you can come up with that money in reserve," the loan application person told Dave.

Often during our practically 25 years of marriage, when one of us would get very discouraged, the other would seem to have extra hope and faith. (There will be a lot of that in this story!) So, on this occasion, when Dave, already worn out from the drive and living out of a suitcase, and not seeing any workable options, called with the news on the loan, I was somehow encouraged to keep hoping.

But we were in quite a quandary. We felt that him finding this job (which was a Grails job) this quickly, with great pay, still in St Louis, all this must be from the Lord. But if we couldn't move, what could we do? Dave was required to be on site for this job; working at home was not an option. So, that would mean the job in St Louis was not an option. And yet, the few job possibilities in Wisconsin would mean a 2+ hour daily commute, because the jobs were further from our home and a drop in pay (accentuated by the increase in commuting costs). It seemed like we were up against a wall which we could not scale.

Dave talked to our realtor and checked with a different loan officer in St Louis, and heard the same thing with all the banks, not just our bank. It had to do with the mortgage crisis. It was a new regulation for people purchasing a second house.

It occurred to me that since it was a sudden ruling, and since it had messed up so many house deals, maybe it would be reversed as soon as it popped up. Who knows? Maybe that would be our way out of Wisconsin.

So, I stopped by the mortgage office in town, determining to just quickly ask the lady if there was a website where we could monitor any changes to the requirements.

I left the car running and popped in to the small office. Leaving out most of the details, I just asked if there was a website where we could monitor any changes to the loan requirements. She assured me that the regulations were always changing and that they were difficult to track and there really wasn't a site we could find them on. But she wanted to know the details of our situation. I explained we had been un-pre-qualified, and that we had already talked to a couple of loan officers, and that I had children in the car and couldn't really talk right now.

But she prodded and encouraged me to sit down and give her more details. Again, I told her, we already knew from more than one loan officer that we could not swing it. But she persisted in her prodding. So, still thinking it a waste of time, I shut off the car, brought my delegation into the lobby and sat down and more fully reiterated our saga.

I didn't really believe her when she said she had a loan type that she was sure we could be approved for. But she said she knew it would work for our situation, and that she did this kind of loan all the time.

Though I was still not convinced, she called Dave on her speaker phone right then and there and she explained what she had to offer, how her loan program differed from the one we had applied for, and collected some preliminary information.

One approval requirement she told us was an inspection on the house, and the loan would not be approved if any items that were required to be fixed were not fixed. Since this was an "as is" house, we could not expect the seller to do any required repairs. We explained what we thought would be the issues, and she felt they would not be a big deal (slight ominous music here).

She also said that we would have to extend our closing date by over a month. That would require agreement from the seller, but we were pretty sure that would not be a problem.

Before I left her office, she gave me a big pile of papers to fill out and return. Dave soon called me back on my phone, and we both marveled at how the Lord seemed to help us leap over that wall. And I had only gone in to quickly get a website address!

As we drove home, it was such a pretty day, with the typical Wisconsin weather fluctuating from some summery hot days, and some pleasantly warm days. By the time the loan was approved, I thought as I drove, we'd be heading into fall... a great time to move (ominous music getting a little louder here).

We quickly got our information back to her, and she was very impressed with our speed. We wanted to do everything in our power to get us moved to St Louis, and all under one roof, as soon as possible. We were finally in the final lap, so we thought.

Little did we know that a small computer error was being made that would make a big impact on our closing date (ominous music louder, ending on a unresolved chord).

If you'd like to read the next installment, take a stretch break and click here.

Part 1: A funny thing happened on the way to Saint Louis...

A man's heart deviseth his way:
but the LORD directeth his steps.
Proverbs 16:9

The story you are about to read is true.

As we have alluded to on this blog a few times, we moved to St Louis in December. I think we also previously alluded to the very wonderous way in which the Lord brought us here. In fact, we have done little else but allude. But we have been keeping a running list of all the ways in which the Lord has directed our steps to get us here, and we felt it was time to share them.

This is a long story, so we will relay it here in parts. This will keep your eyes from glazing over and my fingers from cramping up.

It all started on a small acreage in south central Wisconsin...

The small acreage was about an hour's commute from Dave's workplace in Madison, and this was partly by design. We decided it was time to give country living a try. The acreage (some might call this a slight exaggeration, but it was nearly 2 acres), was a fixer-upper in a wonderful woodsy area, etc. The distance from Madison kept it affordable for us.

After three years in the country, the two hour daily commute did begin to get tiring for Dave. However, coupled with some backwards steps in technology on the job and an effective decrease in his pay, the job situation began to become a strain. We began praying and seeking and knocking, but no better local options opened up. So we just waited...

Well, in God's timing, an opportunity opened up. It was what could be called a "dream job" if a person was a dreamer of jobs. It was several weeks until things were finalized with this new job, but we were so thankful and waited. The most wonderful part was that, the client agreed that until we could sell our acreage and move to St Louis, Dave could work from home most of the time.

We made the strategic household adjustments, purchased very fluffy slippers for Dave's commute upstairs each morning, and put the house on the market. However, as we headed into winter, we had very few showings on the house. By summer, we planned a trip to a St Louis homeschool conference coupled with some house hunting. Our patient realtor showed us a few places, but the heat, the enormous distance between houses, and the complication of our family size greatly hampered our efforts. You see, St Louis county, and some others in near proximity, have rules about how many people may occupy a residence. Fifteen people, in some towns, would require an 8 bedroom home! So, we really needed to do more research, and we headed home with no prospects, but more direction.

Dave made another trip to St Louis, with the boys, a little later in August. This time, with Debbie at home scoping out possibilities on the internet and relaying them to the realtor, we could cover a lot more territory. Dave and the boys were ready, willing and able to do some intensive house shopping. They brought tools, flashlights, and of course, our copy of "House Buying for Dummies."

The main search criteria was that the house be affordable, not too far from downtown St Louis, and NOT in St Louis county. Outside St Louis county, we could pack ourselves in like sardines and nobody cared. Inside St Louis county, we were looking at having to renovate a small motel.

The best housing prospect we found was about 40 minutes from downtown, but all things considered, we felt good about it. It was being rented, so the tenants had to have 24 hour notice before house showings. This made it so that the guys had to wait until the following Monday to go by for a second peek. The investigations and the very reasonable price made us feel pretty okay about putting an offer on the house that Monday. Though the Wisconsin house was still for sale, we were told by our bank that we were pre-qualified to purchase a second house before the first one sold. So Dave had a pre-qualification letter to present with our offer.

(Foreshadowing alert: The reader should suspect that there is a reason we are putting pre-qualifed in bold. The reason is, I don't know how to put in ominous music.)

Since Dave would be in St Louis on Monday anyway, he decided to go into the office and sit in on a meeting scheduled that day. (Normally, he would "attend" by phone.) So, Monday was the big day. They drove by the ATM to withdraw money for the deposit on the house, Dave went in to the office for his meeting, and then he found out his contract was terminated.

As Dave and the boys headed back to the car, of course, the whole plan changed. Though we had never experienced unemployment before, that was really only part of the adjustment. We knew that it was not something the Lord would want us to worry about, so that saved us some time. However, we had made many plans during the previous 8 months, and with the termination news, it took some concentration to figure out what had changed and what hadn't.

For example, we were wondering if we should keep the house on the market. Hmmmm. We decided to keep it on the market. Since we were already willing to move, we'd just open the job search up nationwide and see where the Lord led us.

One thing we knew for sure, it would NOT be St Louis, Missouri.

Now, by this time, Dave's Grails computer book was finished and scheduled for printing. While Dave was willing to take any position that met our needs, we were all really hoping for a programming job in a shop using Grails. But these jobs are rare! So, he cast his net pretty wide, hoping for a Grails job, but knowing it wasn't too likely. He looked for openings and sent his resume. He posted his resume on nationwide job boards. He waited. Nothing.

We tried to take advantage of the time, going on nice walks and pondering the next step. The Lord really gave us peace, but the waiting got old.

Eight days after the job search, he got a call from a recruiter. This was for a job which Dave had never seen or applied for. Initially, she didn't seem to understand Dave was hoping for a Grails gig (as they call them). When he mentioned Grails, she matter-of-factly said, "Oh, yes, yes, I know, I know," but as Dave awaited the phone interview, he wondered if she had her details straight.

However, she did. It was for a Grails job. The interviewers tried to minimize their surprised reaction when they learned he was the author of a book on Grails. The interview went well, and Dave received a satisfactory contract offer the same day. We were amazed and just thanking the Lord!

We knew already to brace ourselves for the fact that this was not a job where he could work from home. He would have to be on site daily, starting immediately. As we began packing his bags and making preparations, our main consolation was that the job was located in:

St Louis, Missouri.

(da da dum dum da da da!!!)

Is that weird or what?

Okay, we are almost done with this installment...

So as soon as he hung up the phone, he's on the phone to our realtor. The realtor who led us all over the St Louis metro area twice. The realtor who heard we had lost our job and were not moving to St Louis. That one.

Was that house we almost bought still available? we asked. We already felt good about it, had checked it out, and it was a great price. That would be the quickest route to getting us all down to St Louis, since Dave could not work from our home with this new job.

But no, it was already sold.

So Dave prepared to head down to the new job in St Louis, and we began scrambling to find a suitable second choice. We were so thrilled about the new Grails gig, we just trusted that the Lord would show us the next step. And he did.

But that step was followed by a lot more steps than we had bargained for!

This story continues here, but you might want to take a stretch break first!