"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" (Matthew 6:25-27)
We were happy in Colorado. I was nearing my 18-year mark in the Air Force, and we figured it was a sure bet we'd retire and go on to a second career in Colorado Springs. We had a church family we loved, and we enjoyed the outdoor life in the Rockies. Our house was high up in the mountains, away from the hubbub of the city. One Tuesday, on our way into work, my wife and I were talking and she casually mentioned that the only regret she had over my Air Force career was that we had never had the opportunity to go overseas as a family...
Just two days later, I had an email in my inbox directing me to report upstairs to sign for my next assignment. I went upstairs with some trepidation, fearing a remote assignment away from friends and family or (perhaps worse) an accompanied tour someplace boring, away from the mountains. To my shock, the assignment was an accompanied tour to Germany! I called my wife... "Honey, you'll never guess what. I got an assignment to Germany! Do you want to go?" The response was instant. "Yes!" As much as we loved Colorado, the chance to live in Europe as a family was too much to pass up.
We quickly put our house on the market, and we had an offer within two weeks of listing it. God was blessing our move. Everything was just falling into place. We began the routine of paperwork and inspections, confident we would be out of our home and in an apartment within a month, enjoying our last summer in the Rockies before our new adventure. Little did we know that was just the beginning of the longest four months of our lives. One afternoon I received a fateful phone call. "...There's a problem, the inspector found a lot of mold in your attic. Your buyer has withdrawn their offer." Mold! In a place where the humidity regularly dips into the 20s! I crawled up into the attic and my heart sank at the sight of an expanse of black and gray wood.
It turned out our house had several small building defects that all worked together to seal the attic up tight. While the humidity outside hovered around 25%, the humidity in the attic was over 90%! What ensued was a protracted ordeal of conversations with our home builder, a lawyer, to whom we explained we just wanted to get out of Colorado with our finances intact, and the Air Force personnel flight - "Could they pretty-please figure out some way to put off the assignment so we could settle our disastrous situation?" At first the news was all bad: The builder would not and really could not buy our home. A professional remediation service indicated that the repair costs would total over $13000.00, and that was if the roof didn't need replacing! The Air Force refused to delay the assignment. We were headed for bankruptcy for sure. My coworkers joked that they could see the gray advancing across my scalp by the day.
As the days passed and our legal fees mounted, we began to get desperate. We sold many of our marketable possessions; guns, tools, furniture items. We desperately sought ways to lower our monthly expenses, should we need to pay for an empty home while living in Germany. Finally, we decided to take both our cars and trade them for a subcompact. We prayed that God would show us whether that was His will. It wasn't. The dealer offered us ridiculous sums for our cars - well under blue book for both of them. I stormed out of the dealership, angry until my wife reminded me that we had prayed God would close any doors He didn't want us to go through.
We came home, got on our knees and offered a simple prayer. "Whatever and however you want us to do, God. We'll do it. If we need to go with the clothes on our backs and start over, okay." That very night we received a phone call from our Realtor. "I have an offer for you on your home from a man who specializes in water restoration." It was just less than what we needed to be out from under the house, free and clear. We offered a counter for that little bit more and the buyer accepted, as - is. We had lost our down-payment, but would leave Colorado unencumbered.
In the end, the Air Force pushed back our assignment long enough to settle with the builder. The builder agreed to return the cost of our down payment, plus expenses, and our lawyer, who said he found it refreshing to work for a couple who just wanted what was fair - nothing more, cut his fees in half. As I look back, I can see God's providence in all of the happenings of that year:
- We would never have taken an assignment, other than one overseas. I would have separated, instead. We now live just three hours from my parents, brother, and sister - on the other side of the country and far from where we grew up.
- The move came five years into the life of our home. The statute of limitations for building defects in Colorado was six.
- We have a wonderful new church home, and our children love it here.
- We learned in those few months how really perishable our earthly treasures could be. We're still learning, but we have a whole new perspective.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Luke 12:6-7)
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