Email from an Angel

Well, a strange and wonderful turn of events happened yesterday evening. After spending the day trying to schedule a tour of a condo that we thought might be our place, and not making any progress, I was on the way home from work feeling a little anxious and a lot frustrated by how much time and energy it can take to do this whole looking for a place to live thing. I can't even imagine when it's over buying a house. We'll give that one some time.

I had just taken the exit off the highway into our town and was sitting at the stop light when I compulsively checked my phone to see if I had any new calls or emails. It's something I've gotten in the habit of doing since we've been calling and emailing so many different people. The little gmail icon was displayed in the top left corner, and I thought...hmph...probably another junk email. Normally that little gmail icon doesn't spark so much excitement, but lately, I've practically lived to see it.

It was no junk email though. It was sent from an angel. Well, it was the realtor we had met and submitted an application with before, but it might as well have been an angel. The subject line showed the address of the place we had applied for, and then said >> Fully Available. See, the only place we had applied to yet was our favorite, favorite place - you know, the one I've been talking about in previous posts - the one we weren't accepted for.

The traffic light turned green, but I tapped the email and had to keep reading. Between looking up at the road and back down at my phone, I made out words like "previously accepted tenants" ... "medical emergency" ... "preventing their move" ... "condo fully available" ... "interested?" ... "asap." My heart was racing as I skimmed it again to make sure I wasn't seeing things, and sure enough, it was available. I called Levi even though I was less than 5 minutes from home, then called the realtor and couldn't say "we'll take it!" fast enough.

He told me the only reason we weren't accepted in the first place is because the other applicants had dogs, and the owner has dogs, and she knows it can be difficult for dog owners to find a pet-friendly home. I harbored a tiny bit of hatred in my heart for pet owners all around the world for about half a second - as I thought to myself "are you kidding me??" - and then quickly didn't care any more because we had our condo!!

The realtor got in touch with the owner to tell her what was happening, and I tried to reserve my excitement until we really knew for sure that it was ours. Then at 6:20-something this morning when my alarm went off and I saw that gmail icon on my phone, I was two taps away from seeing the lease agreement on my screen through my blurry morning eyes. We signed this evening and will have access in three short weekends!

God knew our desires and brought them to pass even after we had long since let them go. And we are SO happy.