SOLD

As you can imagine there is SO MUCH that needs to happen before we can move to Thailand in September.  There are definitely times when I think about all this and I get anxious.  Every time I  begin to worry, I hear God telling me "I got this Christina, I got this." And I truly feel a sense of "peace that surpasses all understanding" come over me.  The two biggest things that need to happen are one, that we need to raise support and the other is that we had to sell the properties we own.  Little did I know that God had BIG plans for us in checking one of those things off our list a lot quicker than we ever imagined possible!
So, we own two properties.  We own the house that we live in (of course) and because of Hurricane Katrina there were SEVERAL houses that were actually bought by the government.  Well, they decided to get rid of these properties by offering them to the houses next door as lots you could add on to your yard.  When we bought our house, there was a gutted house next door for the first year and a half that we lived here.   We were offered the opportunity to buy the lot next to us at a very cheap price.  We decided that it was a good investment and bought it.  So, here we are now owning not one but TWO properties that we need to sell before we left to go to Thailand.

As I knew the time was fast approaching that we would be putting our properties on the market, I was very aware of all the houses around us that were up for sale.  I drove only a couple miles to the grocery store one day and counted 20 different houses and properties just on my way to and from the store.  Also there is a house right across the street that's for sale and has been on the market for 6 months and has 200 square feet more than our house.  So needless to say, our expectations were very low.  I was already thinking about how we are going to have to consider renting our house out when we leave in September and who would maintain the lot for us.  BOY was I wrong!
We put both properties on the market on Monday Feb. 18th.  In only a few hours after putting it on the market, we got an offer for the lot next door AND the Realtor called to say there was someone that wanted to look at our house the very next day.  GREAT!  I was praising the LORD that there was at least interest in our house.  The offer on the lot was for quite a bit less than our asking, so even though we were amazed that we got an offer so quickly, we were advised and decided to reject the offer.  Ok, a few hours after this (still on Monday, mind you this is still the DAY we put our house on the market) our Realtor called us back and said that he has 4 different people he wanted to show the house to the next day!  WHAT?!  This is crazy!  So we cleaned up our house real nice (I even baked cookies, I mean, we were basically having an open house!) Tuesday came, and about 30 mins after the showings, we had a FULL PRICE offer on our house AND a MORE than full price offer on the lot next door!  We were stunned!  We had NO idea that BOTH properties would sell so quickly!  You think the story is over don't you, oh just wait... it's not!
So, Wednesday morning comes around, we were ready to sign on accepting both offers and we get a call from our Realtor saying that he got another offer on our house that was MORE than our asking price  AND another offer on the lot next door that was an ALL CASH offer for more than our asking price and they wanted to close in 6 days!  WHAT??!!!  Are you kidding me God?  I was speechless.  I still can't believe that God did this... So, in LESS than 48 hours after putting both properties on the market we accepted both offers, both MORE than our asking price.  ONLY GOD, people!  Only God!

So, we have already gone to the act of sale on our lot next door and we had the inspections for our house yesterday.  Our date for act of sale on our house is not until May because we are not able to move out of the house until then and actually the buyers are fine with that because that is when their lease ends, (yep, God's timing is perfect!)  Our Realtor (who is the top rated Realtor in New Orleans and has sold TONS of properties) said that he has NEVER before seen anything like this.  We made his record for the fasted he has ever sold a property from the time it went on the market to the time it went to act of sale with our lot.  After he tells us this I said (of course getting emotional, because well, I am my mother's daughter!) "You don't understand, this is so much more than just selling a house to us.  This is God confirming to us that He has called us to move to Thailand and do ministry there. Only God can do something like this!  Only God!"  I have no idea what our Realtors beliefs are but he said he got chills and once again stated how this has never happened to him!
PRAISE THE LORD!  I am speechless every time I think about how God has blessed us abundantly more than I could ever imagine.  This is a story for the record books of our lives where God did something truly amazing to tell us "I got this Christina, I got this!"