Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;That's why I'm blogging about your life, baby guy. I want to make sure that we remember the ways that God has been faithful to us and to you.
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
Even before you were born, He was faithful in providing us the house you will grow up in. We had been searching since December 2013, but for six long months nothing worked out. We looked at three or four houses almost every weekend, and kept falling in love with houses only to find out there were structural issues, or discover that the neighborhood wasn't one we felt we could live in, or end up being outbid. It was a wearing process, and we began to despair of finding a house before you were born. I started preparing mentally for raising you in our sketchy apartment complex, with weed smoke drifting up from downstairs, the one tiny bathroom with no space to bathe you, the bedroom that would have no space to walk once we put in your Pack-N-Play bassinet...
Desperate, we had almost decided to settle on a town home in Castro Valley, but God had other plans for us. I had joked that He likes to be dramatic and build up the suspense by waiting until the last minute to answer prayers, just so that he can come in and save the day.
So after lots of fruitless searching, on a weekend in late June, on our way back home, I suggested on a whim that we check out San Lorenzo open houses (we had been looking in Oakland and San Leandro only). We got to our house at 3:56 pm, when most open houses close at 4 pm. We fell in love with the house (but tentatively, since we had had our hearts broken so many times before), and the real estate agent ended up staying after the technical close to advise us about how best to win our bid. We wrote an impassioned plea about how you were arriving soon, and that (plus a generous offer) was enough to sway the house's owners. They accepted our offer, and escrow closed on July 29, which was just before our apartment's lease ended. Because of this timing, we didn't end up having to pay a penalty for terminating our lease early, like we would've had to do if we found a house earlier. And because of the extra months living in an apartment instead of a house, we were able to save so much money, while still ending up moving before you arrived. God knew what He was doing all along and He came through at the last (but best) minute, just like I had grumblingly predicted.
Because of these things, I made the plaque below for our house:
When we were in Italy for our third anniversary trip, we saw the phrase "terribilis est locus iste" carved into a wall at the Vatican. Your daddy translated it as "this is a terrible place," and because of his past record in Latin translations, I was skeptical. But lo and behold, when we looked it up, it turned out that he was correct. It's from Genesis 28:17, but in this case, terrible is really more like terrific, or awe-inspiring. The verse goes on to say that this is the house of God, which is why it's commonly used for church dedications. While it's just a house and not a sacred place of worship, I did think it was appropriate for our home, as it was so obviously given to us by Him at just the right time, and I hope that as you grow up in it you will hear plenty of stories of His faithfulness to us.
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