This past weekend, we went to Orlando for Kris's UCF orientation and to do some house hunting. Much to my disappointment, we only had 2 appointments lined up to look at houses. But my amazing friend (whom we stayed with) was down for driving around and helping us in our search for a place to live. So, while Kris was at orientation on Friday, we loaded up our babies and spent 5 hours driving around the Oviedo/Orlando area. We looked at 2 houses on Friday and made tons of phone calls, which led to appointments to see at least 5 other houses. I was a little discouraged because the houses in our price range were either really disgusting or just plain not safe for our family. Even the nicer ones needed a lot of work. And although we were finding more and more properties to look at as we searched, I was beginning to think that we were going to have to sacrifice space and/or safety just be able to move in time for school to start. One of the major issues was the up front cost. We knew we would have to pay an application fee and some sort of security deposit regardless of where we chose to live. But I was surprised not only by how much the application fees were ($70-100 non-refundable) but also by how much people wanted up front ($1000-3500)!! Some properties would not even look at an application without the deposit and fees attached. And while some property managers would not accept applications while another application was pending, some had 3-4 applications submitted and still wanted $100 non-refundable. I wasn't about to give them an application with other pending applications. Who has that kind of money to just throw away? And we didn't have the money for an application fee or a security deposit, so we were just completely trusting God to make the money simply appear!
Kris and I prayed before we started our hunt and each morning. We knew He would provide, but I cried out to Him in desperation one day to just show us some indicator that we were still in His will and that He was moving. Saturday was the first day Kris and I got to look together. My friend kept Camden so we could look kid-free. I showed him a house that I had seen the day before and liked. Then we had appointments to look at 2 more houses. The first appointment left us with similar thoughts from the day before. It was small with no yard, and was close to the entrance of the only way in and out of the neighborhood. But the second house was beyond what either of us could have ever imagined - gated community, nice/safe area, immaculate, new - way too good to be true. And granted it was at the peak of our budget, it was only $5 more a month than my 2nd choice.
To our surprise, no one had put an application on the property yet and it was vacant and available. I told Kris that I wanted it so we started talking to the property manager. She was on her way to choir practice so was in a bit of a hurry, so we asked where she attended church. She just happened to go to one of the churches that we had planned to visit. When she found out we were Christians, she got very excited and told us that the owner of the house had been praying for a nice Christian family to move into her house. Kris and I both got chills and could feel God's hand directly on us!! AND to make it even better (and more proof that God was in charge) she was willing to give us a discount on the application fee, allow us to pay half of the security deposit now and half later, and agreed to see if we qualified by the end of the day! So not the case with the other houses we had looked at. Standing true to her word, Saturday afternoon we got the call that we had been approved. The rental agreement is in the mail and we get to pay half of the deposit when we sign the lease and half in September!! God is GOOOOOOOOD!!
We are just in awe and amazement at His provision. And while we still don't have the money to pay the deposit, we have complete faith that He will provide it in time!
In the excitement, I forgot to take pictures inside, but these are the pics on the online ad. It's a 3/2 with a 2 car garage, community pool & playground, in the Waterford Lakes area.
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