Our New House

God has a funny way of doing things. Just a couple of months ago, I dreamed of living in a cute Ft. Lauderdale neighborhood. We thought we wanted to be in a central location, where it would be a quick drive to south Miami or up to north Broward county.

About six weeks ago, through a series of events, God completely changed our hearts and minds on where we needed to be. Brett has been working on the campus of Florida Atlantic University for awhile, which is in Boca Raton. He also is doing a few other things in Boca. He was commuting there everyday.

Before this, I was really missing having college students over to our home. I don't go on campus with Brett, but I absolutely love hosting them! We have found in this generation where broken families abound, students love feeling part of a family. We, in turn, love them being a part of our family. I started praying for God to open doors for me to be able to participate in ministry again.

Within a week, we knew God was calling us to move to Boca. To be honest, I love Boca, so it was not hard to answer the call. We began house hunting, which I found to be exhausting. Mostly because homes in our price range weren't great. We probably looked at 25+ homes. The more we looked at, the more discouraged I became.

One night I had a dream, and the point was God told me not to settle. He was going to provide extravagantly.

Then God, true to His promise, gave us an amazing house.

My mom actually found the house (our realtor and I were not looking at homes out of our price range). She sent me an email saying "I think this could be the house."

My mom is rarely wrong.

Brett went to look at the house first (after dragging the kids around, I decided he could preview them to decide if one's worthy of a second look) and said I had to check it out.

Big problem: the house is out of price range.

I went to look at the house and immediately fell in love. This would be perfect for our family. It would fit us long term.

With hope against hope, we made a low offer. We negotiated back and forth. They came back with a final number, which was exactly what we had decided would be our top price. They actually did not plan to come so low, but they Googled Brett. When they found out he is an upstanding family man (it is amazing what you can find out on Google) who is raising his kids in the house where they raised their kids, they were willing to come down farther than they had planned. PRAISE GOD!!!!

Here is our new house (the decor and furniture are the current owners, not ours).....we close July 8.....(excuse the people in the photos; our friends came to see it)

You will see there is some updating to be done. We plan to paint immediately, but we will wait a few years to upgrade the kitchen and other things. The house was built in 1979, and the kitchen is the original. Yikes! It will do for now, though. I am just so happy to have a house I love that I really don't mind! Plus, the kitchen is really big....so that alone is awesome!

The front:

The formal living room:

The informal living room:




The Master Bedroom:


Master Bath (It's so outdated that it is actually partially back in style...how hilarious is that!!)



The kitchen:



The laundry room. I am SO excited to have a laundry room; I've never had one in my adult life:


The street we live on:


And my favorite part....

Because of the amazing weather in FL, outdoor living areas are typically nice. We spend a lot of time outside, so I am really excited for our screened patio and pool. We also have a nice size yard.

This house is a dream come true for us. We really wanted a ranch style home. I've only ever lived in one place where I didn't have stairs (one year in college), so I am excited for the change! We have four bedrooms!!

I am so thankful for God's provision. We are blessed beyond measure!!!!!!!!

Sorry if the pictures are big; I resized them, but it's not working?!