I have a strong belief that God is in even the smallest details of our lives. I believe he guides us in making decisions and plants us in the part of his vineyard where we can do the most good and prosper most effectively.
When we were looking for a home to purchase in Utah, the housing market was booming. Many others besides us were trying to purchase a home at the same time, which made it very difficult to get a home. Most homes sold very quickly and most had multiple offers on homes in our price range. This was a stressful time because we had sold our California home so we needed a home to move into in Utah.
Our search area for a home was pretty large. We looked in Utah County, Salt Lake County, and Davis County. We put an offer down on a home in Sandy, but others bid higher than us so we didn't get the home even though ours was a cash offer.
We continued searching and found a home in Riverton - one mile from where Eric's family lives. Although I never thought we would end up in Riverton, a house that we loved came on the market so our Real Estate Agent, Ashley Jensen, and Eric & Ella visited the home. They each gave good reports about it to us. With no time to spare, around March 5th, we placed a cash bid on the house (without ever seeing it in person) with an escalation clause that we would offer $5,000 over the highest bid up to a certain amount. We knew this house was popular so we could only hope and pray that our offer would be accepted. As it turns out, there were 31 offers on the house and it was on the market for only a few days! The odds of us getting it were very slim.
On March 8th, the same day we found out that our Lancaster home sale fell through, we found out that our offer had been accepted in Riverton. What a relief to know that we had secured a Utah home, but we were very disappointed that the sale of our home fell through.
Interestingly, being disappointed that the sale of our home fell through, I said a prayer and asked my Heavenly Father if we would be able to sell our home. The answer I received was "yes, it will sell, but it will take some time...just be patient." Two weeks later we had another buyer for the home. Hmmm, I thought the Lord told me that it would take some time, but that didn't take long at all. I really didn't understand it. I figured that I must have misunderstood the Lord's message to me. However, things didn't go well with the new buyer. Instead of the 45-day escrow we were promised, things went south and dragged on and on. After 158 days of being jerked around by the buyer and his two lending agencies, the buyer withdrew from the purchase. We were led to believe that we were almost at the finish line, but then the rug was pulled out from under us. Unbelievable! NOW I UNDERSTOOD WHAT GOD WAS TELLING ME! It all made sense. Fortunately, we had received another offer on the house two days before he withdrew from the contract. The offer was for $1,000,000 and we counter-offered at $1,025,000 and it was accepted. The buyers wanted a 30-day escrow so it is supposed to close on September 20th. Yay! Things seem to be going well this time around, thank goodness!!!
Back to my statement at the beginning of this post that God is in the details of our lives, I will share a story to illustrate that very thing. Shortly after we moved into our home in Riverton, I had a personal revelatory experience. I found myself on my knees at my bedside saying a prayer of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for basically three things - That Alan was able to sell his dental practice (post-covid) pretty quickly; that we were able to sell our Lancaster, CA home; and that we now had this beautiful new home in Riverton. I was marveling how things just seemed to have fallen into place for us as we made this move and it all happened within a short period of time. As I pondered on those three things, I heard the Lord speak to me (in my mind) telling me that he had orchestrated our move and that we were in this home and in this ward for a specific reason. He said "Joan, you just wait, you are going to love your new ward."
I'm so grateful for that experience. I don't know why, exactly, we are in this home and this ward, but I do know that it's where the Lord wanted us to be. I'm very confident that he wanted us to settle here. We do like our ward and our neighborhood very much. Living in Riverton makes me happy! So glad to have been blessed so abundantly by my Heavenly Father. Life is good!
