The Box: Part III

…continued

Unfortunately, right after we purchased our land was about the time that the market crashed.  The thought of a young couple, as first time homebuyers, with hopes of building a unique structure like a log cabin, was kind of like a joke to the mortgage companies.  There was just no way it was going to happen. 

The walls on The Box were beginning to close in on us.  Time was flying by, wedding plans were in full force, and our temporary home started to seem a little too permanent.  We were stressed!

We exhausted every possible option to build our log cabin and nothing was working out.  It was time to move on to a new plan…fast…because the wedding was approaching!  We spoke to a family friend who is a Builder and he told us about some smaller lots that he had in a neighborhood that he could build a house on for us and then we could get a normal loan when it was finished.  SOLD!  Where do we sign?!

Construction on the new house got started, we got to do all the fun stuff like pick cabinets, flooring, and colors.  Our only hang up was that we had to sell the land before we could get financed for a new house.  We made flyers, posted ads, got the word out that our little gem was for sale…every taker we got fell through for one reason or another.  Financing a piece of land or getting a construction loan was no longer an easy task for anyone.  We tried to use the selling point of being able to live in The Box, but that must not have sounded as appealing to others.  We were at a loss.  The new house was almost complete, the land was still not sold, the loan was ready to be closed as soon as proof of sale was provided, and the wedding was just over 3 weeks away.  I knew that Alan did not want to marry me and carry me over the threshold of The Box, I had to respect that wish, something had to give.

I remember coming home from work one day, we sat on our bed (again, the only place to sit) feeling claustrophobic and helpless and Alan said to me “something is missing!  There is a missing piece that we are just not seeing that is making this not work out for us.”  I held onto those words for the rest of the night and I prayed HARD!  Alan was right, we were missing something, but what was it?  The next day, driving in my car, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  The words of our Pastor during our pre-marital counseling we had a year prior.  He talked to us about living together before marriage and we told him that we knew we were living in sin and were trying to make it right by getting married, but had no plans of changing the current situation.  He said to us “I’m not asking you to change it right now, and I can’t tell you what to do, but I will ask you to consider abstinence sometime before you marry so that you can see just how special God meant for things to be.”  I kept hearing his words loud and clear, so I called my Step-Dad who has been a huge influence in my Spiritual life.  I had to run this by someone.  I told him about Alan’s comment and about this revelation that I felt like I was having.  He was speechless and finally got out that it had been weighing really heavy on his heart to talk to me about our living arrangements.  He had never approved of them, but tried not to lecture us or preach to us about it over the years.  But something was telling him to talk to me about making this right with God.  My next phone call was to Alan to tell him that I was moving out.  I was nervous, and thought for sure he would think I was crazy (we had lived together for 6 years!), but he didn’t at all.  I told him that I felt so strongly that this was the missing piece, that if I moved out until our wedding that things would fall into place.  His response was one of desperation “I’m willing to try anything at this point.” 

I wasted no time in packing my bags and driving to my Mom’s where I would be staying for the next few weeks.  On the way there, I got a phone call from the Lawyer who I had contacted to do the settlement on the land with one of the potential buyers who fell through.  She was also the Lawyer who did the settlement when we purchased the land.  She asked me what was going on with the buyer and I told her they backed out and how devastated we were.  She told me she wanted to make a phone call and would call me right back.  I pulled into my Mom’s driveway, walked inside, and my phone rang.  It was the Lawyer, who proceeded to tell me that she still has a relationship with the older couple who we purchased the land from, she had called them and asked them if they would be interested in purchasing the land back, they said ABSOLUTELY!  My jaw hit the floor (not a bad deal for them, considering it has been a rental property ever since!). 

Of course my sinful nature told me “okay it worked, you can go home now”…but I shoved that thought out of my head!  I had to hold up my end of the deal, and I did, and it was so worth it.  Alan & I spent the next few weeks before our wedding spending the night apart.  Within that time, we closed on the sale of our land, finished up last minute wedding plans, and went to settlement on our new home on March 5th, 2008, 3 days before our wedding!

  

And guess what…Alan married me and did not have to bring me back to The Box!

Although we are so very very very happy to be out of that tight space, The Box will forever hold a special place in our hearts.  It brought us so close together, I mean you have to really like someone to be able to live in a box with them for a year and a half!  We made so many memories there.  And it truly made us appreciate things like space, hot water, closets, chairs and cabinets!

So that’s the story of The Box.  I promise I’ll buy some camera batteries now!