petals of wisdom, hope, inspiration, and truth by Keitha
Me, Let Go?
Parton
The phone rang and I waited
in breathless anticipation for
the words, “Mrs. Parton, your
loan has been approved” or
“the house you wanted is
yours.” Always it seemed that
the answer was the same, no
matter who the call came
from, either we didn’t have
enough credit, the house we
wanted was out of our price
range, or we would need a
cosigner.
We had searched for two years and nothing was happening. We had applied for several loans,
saved our money for a down payment, and even considered going into an owner finance situation.
But, constantly something popped up at the last minute, and it would all fall to pieces.
During this trying time in our life, our children were small so they really didn’t mind being
cramped into two tiny bedrooms at my grandmother’s house. We had sold our mobile home to my
in-laws because we were tired of living in the confines of a mobile home park. All we wanted was a
piece of dirt and a place to call our own. Was that too much to ask?
As time dragged on I could not - for the life of me - figure out what we were doing wrong. Were we
being punished? Other people got to purchase homes, land, get loans without problems…were we
cursed?
The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back came in the form of yet another phone call from
another potential owner finance situation. I had gotten my hopes up so high because this time it
seemed that the home was finally going to be ours. I had dreamed for weeks about how I was
going to decorate, plant flowers, and bake cookies to share with the neighbor’s children. It was
going to be my dream come true…so you can imagine the heartbreak I felt when we got the call
stating, “I’m so sorry, but we have had a better offer from another buyer and we have chosen to go
with them.”
I was devastated!!! I called my mom on the phone and bawled like a baby. She listened quietly while
I had an emotional melt down and railed on about how unfair life was. Once I had stopped, she
said, “Have you ever thought that God has other plans?”
Well…No…I hadn’t. At that moment I was ashamed for not once, in the two years of searching, had
I stopped to pray and ask God what He wanted me to do.
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photo courtesy of Kevin Dooley via Flickr / License