It’s neat to see God’s hand at work. I thought I’d record some of the ways God has
allowed us to purchase our first home in Hawaii. The process has been remarkable and almost unbelievable
at times; through it all, my husband continues to astound me with his
diligence, urgency and work ethic.
I do understand, however, that everything we have
is God’s. Every penny to our name, our
good health, family and friends who are loving and supportive—it’s all from God
Almighty. I pray that Mike and I would
never take our blessings for granted, and remember to bless his name in all
seasons of life.
To start things out, I need to go back a year or
so. It was May of 2012, and we decided
to start looking for houses in Hawaii.
There was a month or two where we went to open houses every Sunday
afternoon scoping out the market. We
didn’t know if we were in a place to buy since we had just paid off our student
loans, our wedding, and our honeymoon from the previous year. We decided to apply for a pre-approval from
Navy Federal just to see our chances.
When we were denied, we were pretty frustrated. We felt entitled. How was it that so many people around us,
people who made much less than we did combined, own a home? We wrestled with the “whys” for a few weeks,
but considered this closed door God’s answer to our prayers.
During the time we were going to all these open
houses and checking OahuRe.com four times a day, Mike came across a property in
Makakilo that had a lot of square footage.
The pictures looked ok, but we wanted to check it out for
ourselves. It came up so often in our
searches that we went to look at it twice.
The house was in pretty bad shape.
The hot water heater had been leaking for some time and mold had started
cultivating on the walls in the closet, creeping across the laundry room
through the stairs and into the kitchen.
Rat droppings littered the countertops and fungus dressed the kitchen
floor. Three to four years-worth of
hair, dust, and buildup was pasted in a thick layer across every surface of the
house. The upstairs in particular hadn’t
been vacuumed in years; the kitchen appliances untouched for this same amount
of time. The backyard seemed big, but
the jungle growing in the pool and on the side of the house didn’t look very
welcoming. My first reaction was
disgust. The smell was dank, and if I’m
honest, I was pretty uninterested. Here
are some pics. More of the story to come…
