Thursday, July 07, 2011

Quick update on condo

I got a call this afternoon from our real estate agent saying that we should close on the condo tomorrow! The paperwork will be signed and it will be official! Hopefully we can get the key tomorrow. :) I will officially own my first home!

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Can I Scream Now?

I didn't want to write anything until things worked out, but what can I say? Everyday is a new adventure, and not usually a good one.

We are still in the process of buying the condo. I have no idea when escrow will close so we can lay the carpet and everything. We are now on the other end of a long holiday weekend and still nothing has been done. I seriously want to bang my head against a wall.

The agent will not let us lay carpet or have electrical work done until escrow closes. She may also hold out for the money for the furniture, but I don't know yet. I only know that we should have had the keys last week and instead everything is crazy because the bank is being stupid.

I went to my ING account to pay for the condo (a joint account with my sister set up for this purpose using the money Dad left when he died). I found I cannot wire money. What kind of bank doesn't allow that? Red flag #1. I send two checks because checks have a max amount and the condo is more than the max of one check. So I overnight two checks. It takes two days for the checks to arrive. Red flag #2. Then I find out these are NOT cashier's checks, just regular checks! What crazy ass bank sends regular checks to buy a house? Red flag #3. Do not ever bank with ING!

Needless to say, regular checks take forever to clear. The money was gone from the account on Friday, but the title company still doesn't have confirmation.

So I call the real estate agent and ask her if we can install carpet and have the electrical done while we are waiting for everything to clear. She says no, and she has the keys. So we can't even begin to do anything until she decides we can have the keys!

Meanwhile, my computer died again and Brad's watch. The keyboard is broken and simply won't. I can do everything else, but not type. I do not know if the heat fried it or Brad sweated all over it and fried it. Either way, it's fried.

So today I suddenly realize that maybe just a new keyboard will make my current computer accessible. I was in San Francisco so I stopped at the Apple store and bought a new keyboard. I'll try it out tonight when I get home.

As of yesterday, I still couldn't cash Dad's life insurance check, but I went ahead and bought a new tricked out Mac computer. I'm going all out this time because I can with the life insurance money. April called me today and said to go ahead and cash the reduced check. Evidently, Dad owed them money, and they will take their pound of flesh from his heirs if need be. So I get less, but still a good amount, and plenty to spare for a new computer.

Then Discover Card calls me today. They think the huge amount might be fraud and had declined the transaction. They cleared the transaction, but Apple has to process it again. So I have to call Apple and they put it through for me. What a headache!

Meanwhile, I was lucky to see the call from Discover because I had accidentally turned my ringer off. Brad figured it out and when I checked, sure enough, I had accidentally turned it off.

So...recap. We still don't have the condo or any of the work that has to be done before we can move in. :-p My computer is dead long before it's time. Whether or not Brad did it, it has always broken on his watch. He is not touching the new one. I have a new, separate keyboard that I hope will give me control of the computer again. Discover wouldn't let me buy a new computer until I talked to them and then called Apple.

It's been nothing but one headache after another and I want to SCREAM!

+++++

This year has been a year of learning to trust in God. I know that He is just making me live out the radical theological changes that took place last year. He is drawing me close, and making me finally grow up. I am finally beginning to learn that God is worthy of praise and glory whether or not my computer works, no matter who dies, no matter how much the bank holds up my ability to buy the condo. His worth is not dependent on any external circumstance!

And I am now beginning to see this as a good thing.

For the longest time I have allowed myself to slip and fall in my Christian walk every time external circumstances turn against me. If things don't go my way, I blame God. I am finally beginning to truly "get" the fact that God's worthiness does not rise or fall with what happens in my life. God's worthiness is based in who He is, not what He does. This is a big discovery for me! It's something I've always known, but only on an intellectual level. Now it is becoming a real knowing on a heart level.

I'm falling in love with Him again, unbidden as always. In the words of the wise owl from the Bambi movie, I am twitterpated. I am getting another glimpse of Him as He truly is, and praise is the only possible response to that. He is God. He is sovereign. He is good. I love Him and I want to follow Him with all my heart and soul.