With death behind me we were off to zoning. The first
meeting was much like the one in 2007, it had less passion but did have power
point. This again caught the developer and the city off guard. But unlike the
last time the zoning was tabled and everyone got together. Things looked good,
but because no one planned on this the schedule was obviously going to slip
once again.
James 4:13 – 17 came to mind when thinking about this and
how we were planning on the move:
13 Come now,
you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and
spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet
you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a
mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead
you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As
it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So
whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Again weeks were becoming months and months were becoming a
year or longer. We were looking for a new home and actually looked at a few in California,
Washington and Oregon. What seemed perfect in the pictures became disappointments
in reality. A wonder ranch once owned by Jack Palance sold before we could see
it, but ended up being in too arid of a climate for horses. A perfect log cabin
feel in photos, was sloppy built and on a major road. The other nice home was
very small, was private, but not real close to work. Didn’t matter either way
neither party was interested in a “contingent” offer. So we waited.
Good news was we waited and our search moved around the west
coast. Three homes that could have been were not ideal, and the weather in
those locations was wonderful in the summer, but awful in the winter. We
finally landed on a perfect home and had actually made and offer that was
accepted contingent on our home closing. I double checked with the builder and
explained the deadline and they assured me we were ok. So a bunch of money was
at risk and we got ready.
The zoning was denied by the zoning board. UGH!! We could
get our money back, but this home was the one, so we let it ride hoping the
zoning would be approved by the council. See the zoning board was only a
recommendation and not a final deal. Well this is when the delays started to
come and we began to get nervous as the closing date approached. When it became
obvious it was going to slip, we got with the developer and said no dice since
there were too many irons in the fire and it had to close. The only way we
would accept closing later was if they got the other party on the perfect home
to extend our contract. They did and we waited.
Now we were chomping at the bit and ready to move. Yet once
again the delays were happening. In this process we decided to move and start
our life close to our “dream home”. That was an adventure since the “girls” and
horse left months before I did. I moved in hopes of work before closing. And
things changed again. My sure thing job, did not happen and I became a janitor.
To top it off closing was look grim again.
Was all this done prematurely and would we have no work and
no home soon? The zoning did happen so at least one part of the equation was
still going, just not the life one. I was getting concerned that if closing was
delayed we would be in limbo in an area that had less than promising job
prospects.
So James’ words were ringing in my ear, did I boast
and make assumptions too quickly? Should we have remained patient in Georgia?
Were we making a mistake moving into a “depressed” area? This was all ringing
in my head.