Farm house news and camping fiasco...

Well, we have had quite a week. Right after the 4th of July, we took the two younger kids on a camping trip. We were planning to join my parents at Turkey Run State Park for a time of just our family and grandparents.
We got about 10 miles away and the belt on our van broke. We spent about 5 or 6 hours in a truck stop. My parents live within a few miles of that truck stop so my dad came to our rescue. Then two men passing through tried to help. THEN my two brothers drove up...one on his new motorcycle! There were two trips to the closest town with an auto parts store and finally, it was fixed...or so we thought.
My parents decided not to go camping with us since it was so late but Roger, myself, Gideon and Becca went on to Turkey Run. The van started making the same nasty noises that it had been making BEFORE the belt broke. (But we got there AND we made it home ok...just slowly..) (I drove it to drop the kids off at their 4H meeting yesterday and heads turned! Not because it is such a lovely van but because of the terrible noise it makes!)
Anyway, we DID have a good time for the rest of the trip and we even went canoeing! Neither of our canoes were tipped over and we had fun! We went to some Amish stores on the way home and loaded up on a few items we needed. (They sell things in bulk packages and I am amazed at how much we save!)
We hurried back to get Becca to her "Fun Show" for her Cat Project in 4H. Trinket DID NOT enjoy being there one little bit! In fact, she "pee peed" ALL over the floor AND on my denim skirt! She was sooo nervous! I went into the restroom and successfully washed up.
Becca was a little disappointed because SHE believes her kitty is the BEST EVER and evidently, the judge did not.....
The REAL Cat show will be in a week and 1/2....

The NEXT big thing to happen is that we had decided to put an offer in on a precious little farm house on almost 5 acres. It has 5 bedrooms but needs LOTS of work. We were willing! It has barns and a HORSE barn with a cement floor in part of it to store our little camper or...as Gideon says...to have a skating rink or a basketball court! It is huge! Oh and you should see the chicken coop!!! My DREAM CHICKEN COOP!!!
It has trees, a soybean field and the most incredible well house covered in vines just like in "The Secret Garden!"
So we decided to put an offer on the place and we called the realtor. He would NOT make time anytime that day to let us do so. We decided to call another realtor. She ALSO would not make time to do it for us. (My dad said "They must not be hungry.") Anyway, THAT particular realtor said to me, "It will take $20,000 to fix the septic system!" I don't know if that is the truth or not but it is enough to scare us away from buying the house.
There is quite a lot of remodelling to be done in it and there is no heating or cooling system AND the upstairs still needs to be completely redone, all of which we were willing but we just can't afford the new septic system.

*Weep*

I guess it is not the house that God has for us. At least for now. It most likely will be taken off the market and repaired and THEN put back on at a higher price. Maybe then we can see if it is something that God has for us in our future.

I am certainly extremely disappointed. It is just a few miles from my parents, my older son and about 15 miles away from my younger son. All my family live within 15 minutes.

However, I am in the middle of being amazed at God's provision for us in this situation. Had the first realtor...someone related to my husband...not refused to write the offer...we would have had NO idea that the septic system was in such bad disrepair. We were planning to offer a large deposit and then have a contract for 6 month to a year while we worked on the house. We have just enough money to do that but did NOT plan on the septic system having to be replaced. We had not even planned to have it inspected since we knew that there were issues in the house that would NOT pass a regular inspection or finance with the bank.
We would not have had the extra money to fix the septic system yet we would have been under contract with this man. We could have lost all the money that we had put into it.

I think it very very strange that neither of the two realtor we spoke to would write an offer on that day even though we were willing to do whatever it took for as late as it needed to be. In fact, we called a THIRD realtor before we talked to the particular realtor that told me about the septic system!! I have worked as a real estate secretary for several years and my mother was a realtor and I am so used to having to "JUMP" when a buyer has an offer to make!! It is very odd that no one would do it on that day!

I guess it's not odd....it's just GOD.
He is still protecting his little impatient children. And I am very grateful. (yeah, a little disappointed, but grateful. In fact, the day we were making the offer, I took LOTS of pictures to show YOU but now I can't bear to post them! )

I WONDER WHAT GOD HAS IN STORE FOR US. I THINK IT MAY BE SOMETHING WE HAVEN'T YET EVEN CONSIDERED OR COME ACROSS! I hope it has a chicken coop.....