He Gives & Takes Away

What a past couple of weeks Dan and I have had! As MANY of you know, we have been anticipating the closing of our new house. Apparently there REALLY was a mortgage debacle, and I can now say with all confidence that has to be easier to get guns through airport security than to go through the loan process right now. It has been two months of jumping through hoops to get information that seems absolutely ridiculous to outsiders, but the underwriters need it for some unknown reason. Two months. We were originally supposed to close on October 27th. Well that date came and went in the blink of an eye. Since then, we have been told time and time again that we will close in a couple of days. Those days come and go, and we stare in anticipation at another closing date a couple days later. Needless to say, we have felt similar to cards in the spoke of a bicycle wheel...around and around and around and around, hitting our heads with every turn of the wheel. It has been two months of HIGH anxiety and waiting. If you know me, you know that patience is the very LEAST of my virtues. That "Type A" personality just doesn't allow for it.

All things said and done, we have just been hoping to close before the Thanksgiving holiday so we would have days to work on this house without having to take vacation days from work. We also have a sweet friend moving to OKC from South Dakota who is going to live with us for a while and she will be here tomorrow. When we didn't have a closing date at the beginning of this week, we started to get a bit panicked. We were calling our poor lender every couple of hours asking for updates. After all, it HAS been two months and they have everything but our elementary school report cards and blood samples. As we drew closer to Thanksgiving day, we knew this was not looking good. Finally on Wednesday morning, our lender yanked our file out of underwriting and asked them to push it up to the Regional Manager because nothing was being done on it. The good news is that they responded within 30 minutes of that call. The bad news is, they filed us as a risk and denied our loan after having our file for two months...just like that. Our lender was so upset, and told us that he knows they just got mad with us pushing and looked for the first "risky" item to deny us. That risky item was the fact that Dan does roofing on the side, and has done quite a bit in the past few months. What??? Wouldn't that make you feel safer knowing that if something were to happen to one of our salaried jobs, we would still be able to bring in income???? So, we have reapplied with another lender, and hopefully they can push it through for us this week. Not cool. What's a girl gotta do to be in a home? The worst part was that we felt completely blind sided. We were both made to think that it wasn't a matter of "if" we were going to close, but "when." Hard stuff.

Needless to say, we were pretty bummed on Wednesday. The thought of not getting this house is just too much to bear right now. I can't even go there in my mind, but have to prepare myself for whatever may come at the same time. All the plans we have made are tentatively on hold until we know more. We already have things moved into the garage of this home. However, God totally smiled on us Wednesday in the midst of our grief and frustration. Dan was getting ready for youth service when he heard a little cry from the bushes outside of the youth building. He kept hearing it and hearing it, growing louder and louder. A pitiful little cry. When he started looking, he saw a little kitten buried deep in the bushes, scared to death. He worked to get his hands on it, and finally did. He took it inside and let some of the youth girls comfort the little baby until I could get over there. When I got there, it was over. That kitty was no longer homeless. He is the sweetest little thing. He is a chocolate brown, long-haired kitten with bright green eyes. He is SOOOOOO lovey, but he is super scared. He limps on his back leg and has a tail that is broken off about 2/3 of the way up, so it makes a hard 90 degree angle and just hangs on the tip. When he is not running from hiding place to hiding place, he will let you love on him and just purrs and purrs. He is precious.

We took him to the vet yesterday to have his leg and tail looked at, as well as his overall health examined. We found out that he is about 9-10 weeks old, and is pretty sicky. He was running a fever of about 103.7, which would be about 101.7 in humans. The doctor seemed to think he had probably been attacked and bitten by a larger animal, which explained the leg, tail, and fever. He also had some fleas and roundworms. He was treated for all of those, and given an antibiotic to take for the next seven days. Poor little guy. He's had a rough run for the first few weeks of his life. Wednesday was his lucky day. He found a home where two people will absolutely adore him. It hurts my heart to think about where he came from and how he has been living. He is so scared of humans. We can love on him and he purrs, but the second you put him down, he is instantly afraid again. It will take him a while, but we know he is going to be just fine. We are trying to name him, and thinking Jett, Sambo (Sam), or Rocco. Little cutie.

So see, the Lord DOES give and takeaway. We are being taught serious trust right now, but in the midst of that, we can see that the Lord gave us a little special gift to show us He loves us and also to keep our minds off our current situation during the Holiday weekend. Pray for us if you think about it. Pray for this house and for our hearts. Also pray for our little kitty to heal and feel at home with us. He found us Wednesday, we didn't find him. He has already brought new love into our home. Sweet little baby.