Waiting...and God's perfect timing

My journal a few weeks back...

August 25, 2005

Waiting. That’s what this month has been all about. And waiting is pure agony if not for God’s grace. God’s grace that teaches us patience and thankfulness. God’s grace that gives us new and unexpected mercies every day. God’s grace that renews us and sets our perspective on the right thing.

Despite the inconvenience of living out of our suitcases and sleeping on unfamiliar beds this past month, God has given us so much grace in waiting. We have the most hospitable friends who are housing us and taking care of our every need, and we have not had to worry about anything. We have been able to do lots of fun summer things together, like huckleberry and peach picking, going to the fair, building and painting a porch, and just hanging out and watching movies. These activities have taken our minds off the “waiting,” and we find ourselves just enjoying the time as it passes. We are thankful for summertime in Coeur d’Alene!

August 29, 2005

We have an apartment!!!!!!

It is the best apartment we could have imagined: tons of space, 2 bedrooms, open kitchen, new interior and appliances, clean carpet, bright and sunny, and in a safe neighborhood. And wonderfully affordable, too! It is a huge blessing, especially for our newly married life. God knew what we needed, even back in Chicago.

Here’s the story (if you would spare me a few minutes):

As early as February, we had gone apartment hunting in Coeur d’Alene because we knew we would need a place when we came back in August. We put our names on a few waiting lists. We were pretty hopeful about an apartment complex called Cherry Ridge. But no one called us back before we left for Chicago.

A few days before the wedding, someone from an apartment complex called Hayden Country Ridge called Derek in Chicago and asked if he wanted a 2-bedroom apartment. This apartment complex was known to have LONG waiting lists, and if you ever got in, you were considered really lucky. One of our co-workers had tried to get in before, to no avail.

The lady told Derek would need to fill out some forms and fax in a bunch of information. But since it was only a FEW DAYS before the wedding, we were so busy running around that we couldn’t find a fax machine to fax in the forms. The wedding day came and went, and we came back from our honeymoon, but we still hadn’t faxed in our forms.

“Oh well,” we thought. “We probably won’t get that one. They’ll give it to the next person on the waiting list.”

When we got back to Idaho, we thought it would be fairly easy to find an apartment elsewhere. But it wasn’t. We went to about 30 different places, and no one had anything until September or October. The other ones were too expensive. We visited the office of the one that had called us just to see if they still had anything. They did! Somehow, the management had kept this apartment open for us, even though they didn’t hear from us for quite a while!

Since this apartment was under the tax-credit housing program (lower than market-price rent) and you had to qualify based on your income, the paperwork was intensive and took 2-3 weeks to process. You had to declare all your income and assets because the government audited it. Meanwhile, we stayed with our friends Jared and Leeann. Those weeks really tested our patience, and living out of your suitcase for three weeks is not exactly fun. What if, after two weeks, they were to tell us we didn’t qualify? Then we were really back to square one!

But it was in God’s hands all along. We DID qualify, with a narrow margin to spare. Our supervisor, Russ, even told us that the lady from the apartment management really tried hard to get us in. Later, she told us that she really wanted us as her neighbors, because she was going to be living in the apartment right below us.

AND, it turns out that the apartment we had been most hopeful all along, Cherry Ridge, never called us back during the whole three weeks even though we had bugged them several times. But no matter. This one has one extra bedroom AND it’s cheaper!

So, here we are, in our new apartment. Our first home together as a married couple! What a wonderful feeling. As Derek says, it’s so nice to have a home. I have never felt that more until now.

And every time I walk around our big, new apartment, I just keep thanking God for giving this amazing blessing to us.