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I pushed the cleaning cart into the laundry room, weary after a long day of work as manager of a convenience store. Now I was almost completing my final laundry room in the 100-unit senior complex where my husband and I were superintendents. As I entered the room the bright flowers in the adjoining lot, three stories below me caught my eye.  Rhododendron, peonies, candles from heaven and a crab apple tree, surrounded the pale green house beckoning me with their beauty.  It appeared the plants needed care as some were growing up through the porch rails and others threatened to swallow the shed from view.   

Dare I dream that one day we could own a home like that? We were still newlyweds with only pennies to our name. My husband, Tony, and I didn’t grow up with much.  Our moms struggled to make it on their own as both lost their husbands in the prime of life. My biological father lost his battle with cancer when I was seven and Tony’s father passed in a tragic fire when he was four.  

For both of us the remainder of our growing up years were filled with moving, and financial uncertainty. We longed to give our children more stability but wondered how we would ever afford the home we longed for. Neither of us had the opportunity to finish college and both of us worked blue collar jobs.  

Despite what appeared to be an impossible dream we couldn’t help but dream. One afternoon Tony mentioned the green house next door, querying whether anyone lived there because it looked so vacant. By day it appeared to be deserted, with no sign of life entering the backyard. By night only the light of one lamp shown out from the kitchen windows.  

Both of us were drawn to the property, feeling that it would make a perfect home for the family we hoped to one day have.  

Months went by.  

Since we had taken the job as superintendents of the senior complex on top of our fulltime jobs we began to have a surplus of money and began paying down our car loans. After a year or so those were paid and we began to save for our dream.  

A year passed. Still we dreamed of the green house with the flowering plants. One afternoon when Tony was mowing the grass at the senior complex he met the man, who lived next to the green house and asked about the green house that we loved. He told Tony that an older gentleman in ill health lived there, he figured that eventually the house would go up for sale. It also turned out that he was a realtor and asked if Tony wanted to be told if the house ever did go on the market.  

Meanwhile, time continued to pass. We still dreamed over the house, but knew it could be many years before the owner passed away. The following summer we began to search for a house in the area as we knew we wanted to start a family and couldn’t stay in a one-bedroom apartment at the complex forever. We looked at many different houses and got mortgage paperwork approved at our local bank in the even that we did find a home we wanted to purchase. There were two houses we put offers on but neither was accepted and we began to be disheartened.  

Our second offer was on a house in the country that I thought I loved. It was three acres up on a hill. I had just found out that we were expecting our first child and could envision our children having a beautiful childhood there, with plenty of room to roam outdoors. However, that was not God’s plan. This house was an estate and the siblings began to fight over our offer and then chose not to accept it.  

I was so discouraged but I didn’t want to go through the disappointment of having my hopes let down again. Tony decided we were done looking and just needed to let God do His work. He felt we were trying too hard to make our dream of home ownership come to pass and that is obviously wasn’t God’s time yet. So we stopped looking at houses. 

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Months passed. I focused on my fulltime retail management job and preparing for baby. I didn’t know how long we were going to have to stay in our small apartment but figured that we would make it work.  

Around February we received word from the neighbor that our dream house was going to be out in the market. The owner had passed away and it was in the process of being cleaned out. Once the house was cleaned it would be listed. He wanted to know if we were still interested. Of course, we were! 

[bctt tweet=”Don’t let your dream die. Pray. Give it to God. ” username=”NaomiFata”]

As we stepped through the front door we were instantly in love. The oak staircases and exposed hardwood floors were what Tony always dreamed of. There were three bedrooms for the children we hoped would someday fill the house. Not only that, the front door opened into a small foyer which led into a family room. Off the family room there was a bathroom. This was a perfect area for my growing home sewing business, which I hoped would someday be my fulltime employment so I could stay home with our children. When we looked at houses the previous summer we had considered how the sewing/business space would fit into each house. I was concerned about clients walking through the main living space and having a place to change for clothing alterations. In the other houses, we had never quite been satisfied with the layout of how this would work but had figured we could make it work. However, in this home it was as if it was made for us. There would be no need for reconstruction to make the business a part of the house. It was already exactly as we needed it.  

That day we put an offer down on the house and within a few days we were in contract. It was time for the home stretch of home inspection, mortgage papers, lawyers, and five weeks till my due date. The bank forewarned us that we needed to close before I went on maternity leave as our mortgage was based from both our full-time salaries. They told us that the bank calls your place of employment the day of the mortgage signing to confirm employment. If they called my employment to find out I was on maternity leave it would red flag our papers and we might not get the loan.  

My due date crept closer and still we didn’t have a final closing date. I began to get anxious. I had heard that I could deliver the baby any time after 38 weeks’ gestation. We prayed the baby would hold off till the papers were signed. He did. We closed on my last day of work before maternity leave.  

God’s timing was impeccable. Everyone told us that it was impossible to close on a house in five weeks. We don’t know how but He made the way before us. With God, all things are possible even if they don’t seem that way in human wisdom.   

As if in a dream we drove away from the attorney’s office. It was almost too much to take it. A home of our own. Three years before that we had nothing except a small apartment and a dream. Yet here we were with the keys to a home of our own. 

It has been eight years this week since we bought our house. My sewing business grew and I could resign from my full-time job to work from home. Not only do we have one child – we have three.  

God made a way for us. He put a dream in our hearts and He delighted to fulfill it when we chose to wait on Him. My story is not the exception. He wants to show Himself to each one of His children because He loves you! Don’t let your dream die. Pray. Give it to God. Find verses to build your faith and believe. He is the God who moves mountains, the same yesterday, today and forever.  

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