A place to call home

We're in our home - we don't own it yet, but we're confident we will; although, we are waiting to do any major changes until we close. After we thought we lost this house (one week before closing), "the bank" came to us with an offer to rent this house with a portion of our rent money going towards the purchase price of the house. Both parties finally came to an agreement towards the end of June after months of going back and forth over the rent and what would have to be repaired before we could move in. Our Realtor didn't think this would happen, our families tried to protect us from getting our hopes up too high, friends cautioned us that this may be too risky.....but Josh and I felt that we received confirmation from God that this would work out IF we earnestly prayed.

(Keep reading if you want the long story)
I don't say this often - but I strongly felt as though I heard from the Lord one Sunday. Our pastor spoke of waiting on the Lord and I sensed an overwhelming impression on my heart - "Jenny, If you want that house (or a place to live) then pray for it! Claim it!" On the way home from church I tearfully shared this with Josh and how I felt that that was OUR house. He was surprised because I was the one who kept saying, "Let's move on. Let's find another house." So, when we got home from church, Josh prayed for our house and asked God to give it to us. Then Cooper prayed - "Dear God, we just ask that you provide the perfect house....we just know you're going to give us the perfect house, Dear Lord...." ~ I don't know where he came up with those words, but both Josh and I were crying! So much so, our little Caroline was concerned. - It's hard to explain that Mommy is just moved by her brother's prayers:)
So, we prayed with faith this time. And we asked God to give us THIS house. Whenever we read the kids Bible stories, we would claim those on our behalf - "God, you raised Lazarus from the grave, we know you can get us into our new home..." We didn't say, "God, if it doesn't work out, then...." We simply asked and trusted. Our Realtor did have a rent house lined up for house if something didn't work out before we had to move out of our current home. That did give us some breathing room; however, we told God we'd rather not move twice with our three kids.
Wouldn't you know, 3 weeks before our have-to-be-out date, the bank came to us with an offer. We said, "Praise God! It's a deal!" We got packed and moved out in about 10 days. What a whirlwind - we could not have done that without our precious families! Thank you so much for your time and energy!
Our new home is not a "perfect house". In fact, when our Realtor first showed it to us, I thought, nice house....lots of potential, but those train tracks behind the house are a deal-breaker for me. Well, those train tracks have become the highlight of our day when the kids run to the window shouting "train" as they watch it go by. The fence needs replacing, we'd like to paint everywhere, and replace the carpet for sure. But, we will continue to wait until the house is actually ours.
We thank God for how he has protected us in this process so far. Because we are renting we got a new upstairs A/C unit and a new garage door = Major costs that we didn't have to pay for.
We may still get the tax credit (that we thought we lost) if we can close before September 30th.
We just know that our God wants to receive the glory in all this and we want to give it to Him. I hope our experience encourages anyone who reads this and is waiting on the Lord.