More Blessings

Last Friday we had blessings rain down on our heads.

A little back story:
We got our house renovated through the city in 2010.  This was a great thing because they spent $24,000 on our house and as long as we stayed in the house for five years, it would all be paid off.  A little bit has been coming out each month, but we still owe about $12,000.  It is in the form of a lean on our house.
Scott and I were trying to make plans to pay it off, but we couldn't figure out how we were going to pay it off as well as get a down payment for our new house.  (Renting in Austin costs more than a house payment.)  We still knew that our family was supposed to go to Austin and it would work out some way.  I was pretty down, though, because I just couldn't see how it was ever going to happen, and I hate having Scott working in Austin and only coming home on the weekends.  We are reading the D&C right now as a couple and at my lowest point we read section 58 that told me that "Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter."  Talk about an answer to prayers.

Well, last Friday, Heavenly Father showed us a little more of how it is going to be possible.  I had recently written a letter to the city trying to see if there was any way to make payments on the money we owe.  She called me and told me that as long as the people that buy our home are within the income requirements, they can just transfer the lean over to the buyer.  It will still continue to go down and be payed off in three years.  With this, we don't have to pay the lean back at all!  We can use the money we were planning on using for the lean to put a down payment on our house and also use some to pay the remainder of our current mortgage if we need to.

Our Realtor told us it might be hard to find someone willing to take over the lean even though they don't have to even pay anything for it, but we are going to use that as a bartering chip when they ask for us to lower our price.  It may still take a while to find a buyer, but at least we can see that it is possible now.  We lowered our asking price and have three people already coming this week to look at our house.

The lady from the city also told us there is a home buying assistance program in Arlington for people that meet the income requirements we need.  It requires people to take a one day class on home buying and then they can have up to $10,000 for a down payment and closing costs.  They have a Realtor representing them that I could call to let him know about our house.  They would be more likely to transfer the lean because they know more about the renovation program that the house had.  We may just be able to sell this house quickly!  (I can't get too excited, though.  I hate to get my hopes up.)

Also, on Friday, we got our pre-approval letter from Scott's new work for our new house contingent upon us selling our current house.  We also got a list of Realtors in Austin that the credit union likes to use.  If we use one of those Realtors they will give us 20% of the commission to go to closing costs.

We are going on Thanksgiving weekend to Austin.  (My sister is visiting family in Las Vegas so we are taking over her house.)  We are hoping to be able to put a bid on a house while we are there.

I would love to move over Christmas break, but I am trying my hardest to be on the Lord's schedule not my own.

Prayers are appreciated.  You can see that they are working!  Thank you all and we love you guys.