Sad, Sad, Sad Continued

Right now, it seems very much like we will not be able to get the house. The reason is the laws. We went to do another appraisal and found out that as of Jan 2010 it is illegal to do a second appraisal for an FHA loan. We tried to redo the entire loan and keep it an FHA but our name is attached to the property and that cannot happen too. One of the big reasons the appraisal came out so low was that the laws have changed for appraisers and things are calculated very differently. I am going to talk to the appraiser and his supervisor tomorrow to see if we can turn things around. If we do not close by Apr 1st we lose our good interest rate and interest rates are rising. It is very likely we will have to buy a smaller house that appraises for more because of say a 3 car garage which gets a lot from an appraisal where granite counter tops and number of bedrooms do not count any more. A 3 bedroom, 2000 squarefoot house with a 3 car garage is apparently worth more on paper now than a 5 bedroom, 2300 squarefoot house with a 2 car garage. That is really bad for a family like mine. We need a big inexpensive house and a 2 car garage helps to drive the price down. We will consider building a house, but there is no way we can build a house with the same upgrades and the same divisions of space for close to the same price.

Having said all of that I need to record a few personal experiences relating to our difficulties in finding a suitable home for our family:

Last night, after a good 24 hours of tears and as I began my personal scripture study, I found theses two scripture:
               John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you...Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." and
              John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
I know that the Lord was speaking directly to me through the scriptures last night. So I will be of good cheer starting right now.

Through this all John has been reminding me not to be critical of the realtors, the sellers, and the appraisers. It is very nice to have a husband who helps keep me Christlike when it is especially hard not be angry.

The last personal experience happened  nearly a year ago, when we took our family on a vacation to Nauvoo, IL, just before we moved from Wichita, KS. Nauvoo  is a really beautiful city where the early Mormon saints lived happily before they trekked to Utah to escape the mobs. In Nauvoo you get to take tours through the restored homes of some of the saints. There was one house that particularly touched me. It was the home of Brigham Young and his wife, Mary Angell Young. The home we went through was a fairly nice frame home with four bedrooms and a nice large kitchen. Mary had this home for only about 6 months before the family had to leave Nauvoo. Before this, Mary and her 6 children lived in a one room log cabin. After they left, Nauvoo, Mary did not have a home of her own for 8 more years. She was kicked out of her home with her 6 children by mobs and had to walk across Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and through the mountains to the deserty Salt Lake Valley. Then it took a long time before she was able to have nice framed home again. As I was listening to the story of this good woman, I had a very strong impression that it would be a lot longer than I was thinking before I had a home of my own again. I quickly dismissed this (not wanting it to be true.) But, oh, how I know that this was the whisperings of the Spirit preparing me for the difficult time we are having finding a good home for our family. First, we tried to get this town house and later we were very thankful how it fell through. Now we are trying to get a very nice home and it seems as if it will fall through. But I know that the Lord is watching and guiding us and at some point we will be blessed with a nice home of our own again.