The Suspense is Killing Me

Okay, so it's probably not THAT bad but it did keep my mind spinning and hinder my ability to fall asleep for a good long while last night.

Disclaimer: This is not one of those fun kid posts I said I needed to get back to. This is another this-is-what's-going-on-in-our-lives posts. ~sigh~ Sorry.

We are very, very, VERY close to closing on the Monstrosity. As in, about 8 hours away from closing. We have been told by our bank that everything is set and in order and we are READY to close. ~gasp!~ I've been experiencing varying degrees of "I knew God could do this!," "WHAT?! NO WAY!," "Are you kidding me--is this some kind of a cruel joke???," and just plain, "Na-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-w-w-w-w..." throughout the past week. Isn't it strange how we can pray and pray and pray for something and really and truly believe that God is able to answer miraculously, and then still feel surprised when He does?! Ha! Makes me think of the Church praying for Peter when he was in jail. An angel set him free, he went to the house where they were gathered together to pray (and no doubt he was included in their prayers), Rhoda was so excited she left him outside and rushed to tell the others... and everybody told her she was crazy. Ha! We are sooooo much like that.

The house has mold. We knew that all along. We thought the bank would put the kibosh on the whole thing when they learned that. They didn't. It was noted that it is present, but that the house is livable. (Of course, by now it may have carried the house away--I've never dealt with mold before, but it is nasty stuff. We intend to take care of that muchos prontos after closing.) The latest twist is that as of last night (now that we have the final "go ahead--we are READY TO CLOSE!" from our bank), the crazy real estate company lady e-mailed Laura to tell her that a termite inspection was done in August on this house and found that there was "an active infestation." Hahahahahaha! Of course! Not only is there soggy, smelly growth that rots your house away here, but there are also little bugs who nibble away at it until there's nothing left but a pile of sawdust. The south is a strange and sometimes frightening place, let me tell you. I don't even know if you can GET mold and termite inspections out west. Mold is only ever seen on cheese that's been in the fridge too long and termites are reported about as often as Bigfoot. But in Alabama...

Not that I'm complaining. I'm just still adjusting. ;-)

So now we find ourselves in an interesting predicament. We CAN buy this house. Everything is set and in place. All we have to do is show up and sign the papers. But since we just learned this new bugs-live-in-and-dine-on-your-house information last night, there's probably not time to have it checked out to see how serious it is. Termites live here. It's a fact of life. And if you're hoping to buy a house that doesn't have mold, well, good luck. If it's vacant, it's moldy. We feel prepared to deal with the mold. And if it is a mild to moderate termite infestation, that can be handled, too. But what if it's really, really bad??? James has been reading horror stories (as he's prone to do at times like this--it drives me crazy!!! But I am LOVING and SUBMITTING to him, Ladies' Retreat Ladies--not clamoring at all. Ha!) about house deals gone bad. He read about one yesterday where the mold was so bad and extensive it took $80,000 to fix. I don't see how that's even possible but if such a horrible thing happened to somebody rest assured James knows about it. He also knows that Brother Horton bought a house one time and then learned that it was infested with termites and the entire floor had to be taken out and replaced. OUCH. Mom knew that story, but was surprised to learn that James knew it. I had to laugh. James knows all of the bad things that have ever happened to anyone. How else would we properly brace ourselves for the worst--since it's bound to happen to us too, you know. Thus my optimistic personality once again butts up against James' dismal, pessimistic one. HA! Okay, so it's not really that bad. Truth be known, he's probably much more realistic than I am. I live in a happy little make-believe world where you always expect the best from everyone, think them all to be trust-worthy and out to help you (okay, except for those realtors over at Bentley), and just sort of blindly assume that all will be well at the end of the day. You should visit sometime. It really is quite nice. :-) James, on the other hand, lives in a world riddled with criminals and natural disasters who alternately attack your home and family and there is little to no hope of avoiding catastrophic conclusions to most business dealings. Okay, okay, so he's not THAT bad... but you get the point.

And he is almost that bad. ;-)

I'm a little off the subject. The house. Do we buy? Do we not buy? We've been doing a lot of praying about it last night and today but frankly there are a lot of other things going on right now of much greater and eternal significance, so our attentions haven't been exclusively on this house stuff--which is the way it should be anyway. We are going to try to get a copy of the report from whoever did the inspection in August (no doubt for the guy who was trying to buy this house before I started praying that God would take it from him and give it to us... Or perhaps before he learned that little critters have eaten the innards out of it...) and see if we can learn how bad it is. If we CAN'T get a copy of the report and if we CAN'T get a termite dude out to look at it on such sort notice, well, then we just have to make a blind decision: buy and hope it's not too bad, or don't buy and wonder if we blew it. Neither is a comfortable decision to make.

So if anybody reads this post before 4:00pm whatever time zone Alabama is in (it must be Central, right???), please pray for God to give us wisdom and help us know the right decision to make. I've asked Him for this house. And a-a-a-a-a-a-a-all along the way it seems like He has moved mountains--many of them--to get us to this point. But as I've prayed and asked Him for it, I've also thrown in the disclaimers: "UNLESS You see that it would somehow be a detriment to us spiritually or financially..." I'm still feeling like it's the right thing to proceed. But then, in my happy little imaginary world everything always turns out well. ;-) I think even James is ready to proceed (unless we learn that the joint is about to crumble because of the little intruders), but I know that we both just want God to direct our path. He sees the end from the beginning. And we want the ending He's chosen for us. Please pray that He'll help us to find it. Thank you!