Writing Prompt: Desire too little

"Our problem is not that we desire too much, but too little." C.S. Lewis

We began looking to buy a house in Canada in 2017. Anyone who lives in the Niagara Region knows it was around this time the market was heating up. (It was since exploded - we had no idea what was coming.)

We met with a mortgage broker and figured out what we could even qualify for, and then assessed how much we thought we could actually afford and had our price range. After weeks of house searching we came to the conclusion that the best case scenario in our price range would be a semi-detached home (duplex) with 3 bedrooms. My dream home would also have a second washroom, or at least a half bath, and room in the basement for the boys to make into their area. Even if it wasn't a traditional bedroom. 

Honestly, I wasn't dreaming very big but I felt I was being realistic. A family of 7 in a 3 bedroom home obviously isn't ideal, but I figured we would do out best to make it work. 

As we continued the search we added one more item to our list. This was where we started to desire a little more, and were brave enough to ask for it. We wanted to stay close enough to my parents that the kids wouldn't have to change schools, and so we would be close to my parents still. I had my doubts about this being possible, but prayed with the kids daily asking for God to open the doors for this to be possible. 

We looked at a number of  houses. None were great, but I wasn't being too picky. Then one came up that hit all our wish list items. It had three bedrooms and two full baths, a semi finished basement and was just two streets over from my parents. The problem was the price was out of our comfort zone. We decided to take a chance and bid WAY OVER the asking price. I'm talking $50,000 over, we wanted this house. In the end we were outbid by over $30,000. 

This is when desperation started to sink in. Prices were getting higher everyday and I started to fear we'd loose our chance to even get into the market. In one of my anxious rants my husband he looked at me and said, "You need to have stronger faith. Why are you worried about this? Don't you know God could give us a house if He wanted to?" I literally laughed in his face and said, "Kenol, God may give people houses in Haiti but He certainly doesn't work like that in Canada." 

To make a long story short God did indeed give us a house. A miracle house. An agreement of purchase made on a handshake, for a detached home ON MY PARENTS STREET, at a price low enough that we could add on extra funds to the mortgage to make this home our own. We finished the basement, redid the kitchen, cut in two new  windows in the basement giving us FIVE bedrooms, plus we put in new floors and paint throughout. 

I should also mention that the previous owners had just finished a major renovation in the basement putting in a beautiful full bathroom. 

The house was more than I ever dared to desire. I didn't want to ask for more than what I believed God could deliver. Why? Because my faith was too small and I had God pushed down in a box the size of my own understanding. Thankfully God loves to bless his children beyond what they can ask or imagine, and our miracle house proves this daily.