I saw the property first. I then showed my bride.

We knew it was just what we were looking for.

There was a small house.  A three stall stable that used to have goats and chickens. It was almost 3 acres and just about perfectly south facing.  The property was just about 50% cleared and the rest wooded.

Originally the property had retired race horses on it.

We walked and prayed over the property. Visited a few times. We just knew this was what God had in store for us.  We contacted our agent.

As I had mentioned before, our agent is a believer. She prayed with us and I’m sure prayed for us.  When we contacted her about the property, she was just getting ready to leave on her first family vacation in years.  She had mentioned the vacation before, and we knew she would be leaving, but the timing…

If we were going to make an offer on the property right away, she would have to pass it off to another agent. This would cut her out of the deal, at least partly.

She said that she was more than willing to give us to another agent, but also that if God wanted us to have this property, we would have this property.

We waited for her to return.

Upon her return we started the process of making an offer. It wasn’t straight forward, but the seller was very easy to work with.  It had been sitting vacant for about a month prior to us finding it.

We settled on a price, and began finalizing the financing.  The agree d upon price turned out to be just 9,000 dollars over our original search price.

Now, here is where the fun started.

A few blogs back you may have read about my bride and I choosing a completely new last name, well this reeked havoc with the Veterans Affairs administration and my VA loan.

I had already gone to the Veterans Affairs office in Baltimore to take care of this in person, but someone, somewhere, in the system did not do what they were supposed to do and nothing was filed to change my last name.

The bank wanted my VA guarantee with my legal name, and who can blame them, but finding the right person in the VA who does that is another story.  Did I mention we were on a 10 hour car ride home from a family reunion when all this went down?

Fortunately I had all the paperwork with us and was able to work with the mobile technology we had to get all the right paperwork to the right person in the VA to take care of the paperwork. Finding the right person however, was not easy.  I called politicians, anyone, and everyone, who could help get this done.  After I don’t know how many phone calls and talking to more people than I can count, someone was willing to go above and beyond and get me connected to the right person to push the right button.  That’s all that was needed.  Someone to push a button to change my name in the system that would spit out a piece of paper with my new last name from the VA.

The right person, the right piece of paper, all is well.

Though God gives us visions, and He will provide the provisions, sometimes we still need to battle to claim what He has for us. This was a battle, but God was and is faithful and saw us through.

Proverbs 3: 4-5

So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.…