A Great Testimonial for Having Patience and Following a Plan

I received this testimonial from a couple that graduated from my FPU class in March of 2010.  What a great story.

Here's our story...      We started FPU back in March with about $4,000.00 in debt and living on one income with a family of five. Most of what we heard and saw, kind of seemed like a far off dream. To be debt free, 3 to 6 months of savings just didn't sound so doable. Feeling mostly discouraged having used our emergency fund about 3 times and having to start over again and again and again just became frustrating! We were living with family which at times is no fun at all. We saw that we needed our own space and fast! We had already lived in an apartment and felt that it would not fit us at all, so we started looking at $150,000. to $200,000. homes that were not affordable but as frustrated as we were we didn't care. Out of the blue my husband told me that we should call Alex just to see what he had to say. I said no are you crazy he's just going to tell us don't do it. Knowing my husband was right I called and guess what Alex said, NO. He encouraged us to wait, til we had our EF, 3 to 6 months of savings and a down payment. Grrrrh! It just seemed hopeless, we were going nowhere. So with that we moved into another apartment with 2 bedrooms and one bathroom. My husband and I shared a bedroom with a screaming baby and our two older children Jordan and Ryan shared a room and at their age they need some privacy, especially being a girl and a boy.      Meanwhile, God had other plans for us! My husband applied for Habitat for Humanity which is a non-profit Christian organization that helps lower income families be able to purchase a home that is interest free. Instead of interest you work on your house for a total of 500 hours. They consider themselves a "hand up" not a "hand out". They make your monthly payments no more than 30% of your income. So, we as a family began to pray daily that the Lord would do what was best for our family. I decided that instead of worrying about whether or not we got this house that I would have "joy in hope". In the bible it says "Be joyful in hope. patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality." Romans 12:12,13. Faithful in prayer, joyful in hope, those are words I truly needed. God definitely gave me this verse when I needed it. The process went on for months with no word. Finally we started getting calls and learned of different stages we had to go through. After 6 months we were told we got the house!!!!!!!! We new it was all the Lord! And the Lord has his ways and His ways are Best! One of the things we knew for sure was that if we hadn't have gone through FPU we might not have had a chance. We're positive that having no debt, no car payment, no credit cards etc. played such a big part. Habitat for Humanity needed to know that this house would not be a burden to us. Thanks to Alex also because like Stacey says He tells people no more than he tells them yes. I cant imagine how big the hole would be if we would have tried to buy that house on our own. You know God's hand is in it when your daughters father lives in the houses new area and our lease is up right when our new move in date is, just before Thanksgiving, and we are thankful!!!