Aside from our personal situation our housing situation became more and more of a burden to us. Don't get me wrong, we had a great space and decorated it just how we liked it. But the building where we lived is very old and had very poor insulation. As a result we listened in on the lives of our neighbors. Our drunk neighbor upstairs took a shine to loud music, so did the African family upstairs, the collegestudents next door loved late night drinkingsocials, our neighbor on the other side shared her very intimate nighttime hobbies with us... We spend our first Christmas as a married couple trembling in our seats because some neighbors wanted to listen to very very loud salsa music from 9 am till 11 pm! Each night we'd wake up two to three times because of neighbor activity.
Slowly but surely all this wore us down. I found myself looking for excuses to stay at work longer and longer, just so I wouldn't have to go home. My heart was crying each night "God please give us a new home!" I knew it wouldn't take away our personal issues, but I so longed for a place to rest, to feel safe.
One day, as I felt so desperate to move, we received a letter. The letter invited us to a houseviewing the next week. We had forgotten all about having signed up for that house since we'd ended up 7th on the list. However, people had changed their minds or not shown up. Hence the second house viewing and we were invited. Not only that, we were now 3rd on the list!
We had quite the wishlist concerning our new house. We wanted the kitchen and bathroom to be nice, not to much work on the house, and we wanted to really like the neighborhood. Besides, the house was in a neighboring town, so we'd have to like the town aswell. Ofcource we realized that if the house really was all that, numbers 1 and 2 would be crazy not to take it!
Anyhow, we went to see it and scout out the town. We fell in love even before seeing the inside. The house was situated at the end of a row of houses, and looked out on a green zone separating one neighborhood from the other. The town had a village-like air to it but with all the conveniences of a city. Our hearts were racing when we went to look at the actual house.
Inside we were joined by three other couples and several others arrived later... we had seen the house and loved it... kitchen and bathroom renovated only one year earlier, new heating system and large windows with double glass, three bedrooms, a huge attic for storage... we were sold. But we were third on the list.... so we held our breath as we waited for numbers 1 and 2 to arrive. After 20 minutes numbers 1 and 2 had still not shown up and the rent-agent moved forward to check our paperwork, another 10 minutes later we were the new owners of the house!
Looking back there have been so many 'coincidences' that we can only sit back in wonder, how awesome is our God! The only time we had to work on the house was the very week we viewed the house and received the key since that week we had holidays. Financially we would have earned too much salary to be allowed to rent this house had it happened two weeks later. And it has been the best medicine to my frayed nerves and exhaustion. It has also provided Tim and I with a project to work on together and that really helped us move along in our relationship.
It's been two months since we received the keys. Spring has come and so has our first year anniversary. Although we had lost eachother for a while along the way, this first year has been a beautiful. Not only that, it has been a tremendous blessing to experience first hand that a marriage doesn't just naturally takes shape after a wedding, but it takes work, patience, determination and lots of love from above. I have always known there would be stuggles and I dreaded that. Now I don't only know in my mind but also by experience that God is greater, that Tim loves me in everything, and that the three of us are committed to eachother for a lifetime.
God truely has smiled on us!
