It's safe to say I've accomplished half of my goal.
In fairness, the lack of updates on the property is due to ... well, lack of updates on the property.
The bank offered us better financing on a construction loan if we owned the property a year before we applied. May 8 was our one-year anniversary with the "farm," as we've started calling it (sounds better than the property).
As of a few weeks ago, we now have a construction loan, and we have one more box to check before the builder can break ground.
We've had some initial meetings with the builder, and after each one, our excitement grows. We're thrilled to be stewards of this land and incredulous that we'll actually live there one day.
But, that's not to say we haven't been challenged over this last year with thoughts like:
Did we do the right thing?
In ten years, will this turn out to be the good investment we thought it was?
Did the Lord really lead us here?
And those questions call for us to start leaving a trail, which is the purpose of this post.
In Joshua 4, the Lord tells the Israelites to set up stones as remembrances after experiencing the Lord's faithfulness in crossing the Jordan. The people of Israel and their children could come back to that place, remember what the Lord had done, assure themselves that He had done it, and worship Him for acting on their behalf.
Much in the same way, we want to erect some stones of remembrance about how we became the stewards of this land.
I said in an earlier post that Ryan first became aware of the land when he was looking on a map to see the location of a friend's new house. (In other words, we weren't looking!) Add Ryan's innate curiosity to a large plot of land for sale inside Wake County, and you've got the ingredients for a major investigation (and little did we know at the time, eventually a purchase!).
A week before Ryan launched his investigation on the land, he met Janet at one of his Edward Jones seminars. Janet was a realtor with an office two doors down from Ryan's. Janet agreed to join Ryan on his rabbit trail. If ever there was someone with negotiation skills and determination parallel to Ryan's it was Janet.
Around the same time Ryan met Janet, he also met Alois, the son of one of his clients, who just happened to be a surveyor. Alois coached Ryan on which questions to ask and ensured he did his due diligence before buying. The land purchase would not have happened were it not for Alois.
We got another big confirmation when Ryan's uncle Bart came in town from California to watch his son play a baseball game at UNC. Ryan has always admired Bart, for his faith and for his savvy in the real estate world. Bart owns several mobile home parks in California and is extremely knowledgeable about real estate investments. Not to mention, the only other time Bart was in Raleigh was for our wedding six years ago. The fact that Ryan was able to show the land to Bart, talk through the details, and get Bart's opinion (and nod of approval) was invaluable to us, and we counted it as a huge confirmation.
The lot we bought is actually two lots, one is 9.1 acres and the other is 1.1 acre. We later learned what a sovereign divide that was -- the bank was willing to offer us financing on a personal residence, but only up to 10 acres (not 10.2). That would be sovereign enough, but then we were able to negotiate a lower price on the smaller lot, which, after the appraisal, meant we had enough equity to use as a down payment on building the house.
(And a note on the appraisal: Tough lending requirements from 2008 allowed us to get a generous appraisal because the existing house on the property checked so many boxes (even though in reality it was a dump). The appraiser had to go by the grid and not his subjective opinion, which greatly worked out in our favor!)
So far, the story has been all about Ryan, Ryan, Ryan. I'll be honest and say that's an accurate portrayal. The whole time this was going on, I was at home, telling Ryan he was crazy, there was no way we could afford this, he was wasting his time, and on and on. It ain't pretty, but it's true.
I was worried about the money, yes. I was also worried about a life outside of a neighborhood. Growing up, I rode bikes and played kickball with the neighborhood kids. When mom got sick, our neighbors (along with the church) brought meal after meal to us for years. When mom got to the point of being bedridden, our closest neighbors came by for a "tea party" with her every Tuesday afternoon. This, to me, is life. Or, healthy life I should say. As much of an introvert as I am, I know it's not wise to live apart from others. Would buying this property do that to us?
Ryan came home from one of his "explorations" one afternoon and told me he had driven through the neighborhood that backs up to the property. He had even knocked on doors, and he told me he had some great news. The house closest to the property (as in you can see it clearly from the driveway) is owned by a young couple with a three-year old little girl and a little boy on the way.
Neighbors. Our same age and stage.
I no longer had the neighborhood rebuttal at my defense.
When setting up stones of remembrance, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention prayer. What better trail to leave in the woods than prayer? I could never say we prayed as much as we should have ("pray without ceasing" the Bible says), but we did pray: about whether we should be doing this, about the Lord sovereignly knocking down obstacles in our path, about Him helping us keep a loose grasp on things when we started to get excited, about Him ultimately doing His will, not ours.
In the end, I have to credit prayer and Ryan's leadership as the reasons I finally came around.
Wouldn't you know, a month after we closed, I was informed that I was going to be laid off. Several friends were worried: But you just bought this land! Praise the Lord, we had no reason to panic. Ryan knew of my dream to stay at home with Will, and all along, we had run the numbers based on his paycheck, minus mine.
Sovereign God.
The last stone I'll lay down is this:
Everyone who knows Will knows that he's an explorer. He's never still and hates to be confined. He loves being outside, in a large area where he is free to wander. Every day his personality is an assurance to me that the kind and loving Lord has given us this land, if for no other reason than that it is perfect for Will.
If we build a house, like we are planning to do, and we live on and enjoy the land for years, we'll praise the Lord.
If He takes it from us tomorrow, and we never get to live there, we trust in His Spirit that we'll still praise Him and be thankful for the journey this last year has been.
For now, we're laying down these stones of remembrance on the road to the farm and praying that in the future, they'll invoke in our hearts the assurance and gratitude for which we laid them down.
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| The road to the farm |
(*Thanks to Brain Frost's sermon years ago about setting up stones of remembrance. I've obviously never forgotten it.)
