When Your Problem Turns Out to Bless You

I have been working with realtors and lenders to purchase a property in Virginia for my Mom’s trust that my brother found and that he is going to manage. The lending process feels especially long because we are forced to find something due to an eminent domain. We were looking at other properties that didn’t pan out before this one, so we’ve been working with Stephanie at Fidelity Mortgage for 8 months. Finally we got a property under contract and our loan was almost fully approved except we needed a letter from Mom’s CPA stating that our “use of business funds will not negatively affect our business operations.” It had to be stated exactly like that by the person who did Mom’s taxes last year.

The only problem was that the person who did her taxes last year is a personal friend the same age as Mom and he had qualms about saying that exact phrase. He felt like he could not guarantee that all would be fine. Now the sentence doesn’t say that he guarantees anything, but it certainly feels like that is what they are asking for. He wrote a first letter saying that “He thought” it would be fine, which was rejected. He wrote a second less equivocal, but still equivocal, letter that was also rejected. The lender’s agent called him about it the third time and ticked him off so badly that he said he WOULD NOT WRITE again. After much drama, we found that that was a misunderstanding and he said he would rewrite the letter the next day.

If he did not agree to write the letter with the exact verbiage then we were going to lose the deal which would have been a shame because we were walking into some equity. That evening my Mom, my husband, and I had a shared prayer on the phone. During the prayer, the Spirit drew my attention to the fact that I had offered to pay 30% down on the houses and that I would need to reduce that to 25% because I was going to need that extra money. It occurred to me that I had calculated the capitol gains taxes on the eminent domain incorrectly and I would need the 5% difference to find another investment if I wanted to avoid those penalties.

This caught my attention profoundly, but it worried me a lot. I had chosen that number a week earlier and I knew that all the paperwork would be completed with 30% down. It was past business hours. I sent the lender an email asking if she could change the numbers, then I went to bed and lay there worrying for quite a while. I just couldn’t see how I could change things. I prayed and fretted for hours into the night. Finally in a prayer I felt some peace about it and was able to fall asleep. I assumed that meant that I wouldn’t have to change it. But in the morning I woke up and thought about Nephi trying over and again to get the plates and the Jaredites suffering it out in their barges for a year. I also thought of Yoda, “Do or do not. There is no try.” I realized I had felt peace so I could sleep, but the task still lay ahead to complete.

The agent, Stephanie, responded to my email the next day that it would add almost a week to the process if we changed the amount down, but she would see what she could do. We were still waiting for Lee to rewrite his letter, so time had to pass anyway. I eventually got on the phone with Lee and dictated word by word what the letter was supposed to say, apologizing all the way. He finally sent the letter late in the afternoon–but forgot to sign it when he submitted it. This delay gave me plenty of time to find out that they in fact could change the down amount. And not only that, but according to our real estate agent, Jon Watts, the possibility of a delay was covered in the contract and that he would just explain to the seller that we were still coming through. Finally, Stephanie told me that they might be able to actually get it done in time, even with the delay.

So it was an awesome faith promoting experience. First of all, that the delay with Lee caused me to pray about the purchase, and in that prayer, the Spirit emphasized a problem which I had been only subconsciously aware of, and I was able to get the emphasized change made against all odds in a timely way (probably helped that the lender stood to make more money with the change).

We still don’t have Lee’s signature but it is coming soon I hope, and the ongoing delay was a blessing. I have felt very burdened by this assignment, and that prayer-prompting let me know that the Lord was helping me although I was oblivious. I was about to make a mistake and I couldn’t know that in advance. I am so thankful that I made the effort that I was afraid to make, and I feel reinforced that He will have my back in the future when He decides I need extra attention.

Kristen