Our first home

When Adam and I bought our first house, it was nothing short of a miracle! You could really see God's Hand guiding us through each step.
First of all, we had a very long list of things we were looking for in a house.
We wanted a 2 story with at least three beds and two baths, but it also had to be open concept with a large back yard and vaulted ceilings. On top of all that, we wanted the master to have a four piece bath and walk in closet.
Then there was the wish list: Adam wanted a good sized garage and I wanted a decent kitchen with plenty of storage space.
The catch is- we were working with a pretty limited budget. I knew we probably wouldn't get a lot of what we wanted housewise if I was honest with myself. I was happy to settle for something close to what we wanted.
But God had other plans and He wanted to bless us big time!
We looked at a couple of houses in our price range but nothing really grabbed us too much. So we decided to take a break from looking for awhile. Then a month later I was looking at online listings and found it!
From the very beginning, when we saw this house listed online, we couldn't contain our excitement! It was perfect for us!! Nothing we had seen so far had come even close to this gem without being out of our price range. Not only did it meet everything on our checklist, it surpassed it!
We set up a time to go look at the house with our realtor and fell in love! We spent the next couple of nights praying about it and felt like God was blessing it. I had sensed in my heart that God was showing me an exact price to offer for our home. The problem was, it had only appraised for ten thousand under what we felt we should offer. Which meant that we could gamble by paying for a second appraisal out of pocket. But if it came in around the same price as the first appraisal, we would have to come up with the difference in cash. Which we didn't have..
Nevertheless, we really felt God leading us in this. So we stepped out in faith and ordered a second appraisal out of pocket after submitting our offer and earnest check.
Our offer was indeed accepted two days later and we were so ecstatic!! We set up the appraisal time and waited.
Then we prayed and prayed some more! Through our prayer time, I heard God challenging me to ask Him for the appraisal to come in at a specific dollar amount. An amount $500 above what we had even offered! I felt like He was asking me to test His faithfulness in the matter.
So we specifically prayed for the next two weeks for an actual amount to the dollar and waited to hear back from the bank.
I remember in conversations with family, some were telling me not to get my hopes up and to be prepared that we may not get the house in the end. I told them that I really really felt that God was going to bless this and that His hand seemed to be in this. And to watch and see God move in the situation.
It seemed like ages went by and I finally got a call from our banker.
I'll never forget after the exact appraisal amount we had been asking God for, to the dollar, came out of our bankers mouth! I heard God in my heart kinda chuckle and say, "I told you so!".
I was so ecstatic, I emailed my husband at work and we both celebrated what a mighty God we serve!
God came through in a big way for us and blew my mind by surpassing any ideas I had of what we could afford for our first home!
And it is so true: we really do serve a mighty God! ;)

Matthew 7:7
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.