Expect the Unexpected

 December 18, 2020.

Last year, it was the last day to ship packages so they would arrive in time for a Christmas delivery. Inside this tiny UPS Store, the line extended out the door with anxious customers holding armfuls of packages piled high above their faces. We stood there at the counter, pen in hand, somewhat in disbelief this day was finally here. We knew this was faith—faith at every unexpected turn.

What led us into this UPS Store on this particular day started a couple months earlier. We had made that trip to North Carolina where we unexpectedly found our dream home. We had decided it was our time to do what we dreamed of doing.

Making the decision to move took far less time than the actual logistics of making the move happen. In the beginning, we contacted our realtor, we worked tirelessly to get our house ready to sell, we listed it, and we were under contract. At the same time, we were working with a realtor in North Carolina, we made a first offer, then we made a more serious offer, and, just like that, we were under contract there, as well. And that’s when things got a bit unpredictable.

It turns out, Texas real estate moves fast. The same process that takes seven days in Texas can take up to 45 days in North Carolina. It was clear these timelines were not lining up. The difference meant the sell of our Texas house would be final long before the purchase of our home in North Carolina. It also meant we needed to figure out how and where to spend Christmas Day, and when and how we were going to get moved.

Our hope was to spend Christmas in Texas and then immediately move to North Carolina. We knew it would take a miracle for that to happen. But we faithfully said, move forward anyway.

In North Carolina we were at the mercy of an appraisal, and that appraisal report had to get to the real estate attorney, and all of that had to happen before the attorney’s office closed for Christmas break. On the original timeline, the report was not going to happen in enough time before the attorney’s office closed for the holidays. This meant we were going to move 1,000 miles away and would be without a house for weeks.

To be honest, this is the part of the story where it looked like things were not going to work out. This is the part of the story where fear and worry could have started creeping in. But this is the part of the story where we put faith in front of fear and we moved forward anyway.

Brandon called the appraisal company and they said they could do the appraisal the following day—three weeks ahead of schedule. Then he called the real estate attorney who said she would stay at the office as long as she had to on their last day open to finalize our closing. As long as all of the pieces fell into place by the close of business on Friday, December 18, 2020, everything would be fine.

But at the start of that week, everything was not fine. We learned there were issues with the sell of our Texas house. So much so, it looked like the entire deal was going to fall through. As soon as we got over that hurdle, we were told our buyers weren’t going to be able to close on the date we needed them to close. Even with everything moving ahead of schedule in North Carolina, none of that mattered if we didn’t close on our Texas house on time.

Now this is definitely the part of the story where we thought everything was falling apart. This is the part where fear and doubt crept its little head in waiting for us to falter. But this is also the part of the story where we realized we had been doing the unexpected, so why not expect the unexpected to continue happening? This is where we kicked our faith into high gear and said we are moving forward anyway.

That Thursday, we did close on our house in Texas. We did nearly get kicked out of the bank as we waited for our Texas house to fund, so we could send the wire for our down payment. We did anxiously await for our closing papers to arrive so we could finalize our purchase.

And just like that, there we were. It was the week before Christmas, and we needed two things—a notary and a way to overnight our signed closing documents. We found a place that could do both.

That Friday, December 18—the last day to ship packages in time for a Christmas delivery—we were first in line at a local UPS Store, so we could sign, notarize, and overnight all 65 pages of our closing documents back to North Carolina.

As customers stood in line behind us, anxious about their shipments, we breathed the biggest sigh of relief. With each document we signed, we felt more and more at ease about what we were doing and where we were going. With each page, we felt more at peace about the plans that were unfolding. We stood at that counter and signed off on all we had done and all we had hoped for our future.

We left the UPS Store and snapped this selfie out front. There was no picture with our realtor holding a big key. There was no fanfare out in the parking lot. This was definitely not the way we had envisioned the finale of making our move to the mountains. But it was perfect anyway.

The truth is, most things rarely go the way we expect. There will be twists and turns, obstacles and setbacks, but we can continue moving forward. The truth is, when we put faith into action, well, we can expect the unexpected!