Never Say Never!

God has a funny sense of humor. He always gives us what we need. And what He gives us is always, always, always better than what we could have imagined. Let me give you a few examples...

When I was 16, I wanted a car. But I had requirements for my car. It couldn't be white, couldn't be a 2-door, couldn't be standard. I would never drive a standard white 2-door! I mean, there are so many cars for sale out there, I was sure I could find something to meet my needs...as long as it wasn't white, wasn't a 2-door, wasn't standard. Fast forward a few months and what was I driving down the road in? A 1988 Nissan Sentra. To be more specific, it was a standard, white, 2-door Nissan Sentra. And I loved it.

When I thought about the children that I would have someday, I pictured them with dark hair, big eyes & bright smiles. But I also had requirements for my children. I didn't want a child who was either mentally or physically disabled. I mean, I just couldn't handle that! I worked in a special ed. classroom right out of college and that was so very frustrating for me. And I was afraid that I would pity my child if they were somehow handicapped. So I'd just take a healthy, perfectly normal child, thank you very much. Fast forward a few years and who is the light of my life? A little boy with dark hair, big eyes & a smile that is brighter than the sun. To be more specific, he is a little boy with dark hair, big eyes, a smile brighter than the sun with a great possibility of a permanent physical or mental disability. And I wouldn't change a thing about him.

When Ben and I discussed the type of home we wanted to buy someday, we pictured homes that we could raise a family in. But we had requirements for our home. Sometimes some requirements conflicted with other requirements! Ben didn't want to be in the center of town, but I didn't want to be too far away from things. Ben wanted a large plot of land but neither of us wanted to do lots of yard work. We wanted an older home with character that we could fix up and make ours, but we didn't want to have to fix it up before we moved in and then spend all our time & money fixing things. I couldn't even consider a house without a dishwasher, garbage disposal and lots of counter space. We didn't want a little tiny house. We both said we never wanted a ranch style home. We wanted a two car (or more!) garage. We didn't want less than three bedrooms. We were starting to think we'd never own a home (but if you take a quick look at the title of this post, you'll see that we're learning never to say never!!). Fast forward to Saturday, October 4, and what did we do? We put an offer in on a 1,025 square foot, two bedroom, one bath ranch with a 1 car garage and an outdated kitchen with no dishwasher, no garbage disposal and very little counter space. Two hours after putting the offer in, it was accepted!! And we're thrilled. I'll give you more details when we get further into the closing process and have more to tell. :)