There’s a particular road I delight to drive when making my way from one side of Durango to the other. In fact, I’ll take this road even if it adds an extra five minutes. Why? Mountains. This slightly-less-traveled route leads you up in elevation where views of the majestic LaPlata Mountains rise like a crescendo, ushering my heart to applause every – single – time. Not to mention the encore at sunset…

It was during one of these drives last fall when it happened. Those mountains in all their glory – all done up in ribbons of yellow, orange, and green, adorned with white caps that sparkled against bluest of skies – they taunted me, provoked me to such boldness… I was a lover entranced and simply couldn’t help myself. The words came spilling out unrehearsed and unrefined…

“Lord, is it too much to ask for the LaPlatas?”

It caught me by surprise. I snickered at my own gumption… I could just hear a Divinely sarcastic response, “Is that ALL, my dear? Anything else I can get for you?”  I was embarrassed to imagine what someone might think if they’d heard my lofty request. I convinced myself that I was mostly joking, I mean nobody really asks for mountains.

Fall gave way to winter and winter to spring. This particular prayer had long decomposed with the rest of autumn’s leaves…

Then one April evening some friends informed us that a house had just come on the market in their neighborhood, a neighborhood which offers spectacular views of the LaPlatas and access to a variety of trails for biking and running.

Long story short: we made an offer within the week.

It happened to be Easter weekend as we eagerly awaited the seller’s response to our offer. In faith, we drove up to the vacant house and snapped this family photo on what we hoped would become our lawn and our cherry blossom tree, with that view from the front windows!

But no. They rejected our offer. Dang.

We had committed to walk away if our offer wasn’t accepted. We’d done our research and knew the home was only worth so much and they were asking for a lot more.

Well, really long story short: over the next five months we watched the price drop $100,000! In fact, the sellers came back to us a couple times asking if we’d consider making another offer, to which we declined for various reasons. We kept trying to close the box and be done with it, but like tape that wouldn’t hold, this box just kept popping open. It was humorous and exasperating at the same time!

Finally, one morning I prayed, “Lord, if this is YOU that keeps opening this box and you are giving us this home then I would just need to know that it was you and not us. I would almost need a sign, Lord…” And with that prayer spoken I left to go on a hike with some friends.

After the hike I decided to swing by the vacant house to look it over and pray. Afterwards I got in my car to drive away, looked out my passenger window, and saw THIS …

That is Trek’s shoe. It had been missing for weeks, at least a month or more. And in the background is THE house, the one we’d made our offer on, walked away from, and once again been praying about. I literally said, “No way!” out loud like ten times! On the morning I had asked for a sign – that very morning – I had THIS hike already scheduled, which put me in THIS neighborhood, making it easy to swing by THIS house, where it just so happened that someone found Trek’s shoe and placed it on THIS box in front of THIS house. Coincidence? Some might call it that. And to be honest, we didn’t know what to make of it either. So life continued as normal.

Then one day everything came to a screeching halt upon receiving this text from our realtor: HOUSE DROPPED ANOTHER $50,000. What?! At this price we knew the house wouldn’t last long. So here we were; a decision had to be made.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV

This is my life verse. It has to be. When it comes to decision making, I am banking on the promise that God will show me which path to take (because my sense of direction is way off most of the time).

So coffee in hand, I stepped onto our deck, breathed in the crisp morning air, and snuggled myself under a blanket to spend some time praying. I looked at the mountain in front of me and thought to myself, “Lord, if you could just cause a falcon to fly over Animas then I’d take it as a sign that you are giving us this home.” (Again with the signs? I know, I know…) I sit there for thirty minutes eagerly watching. No falcons. Every other kind of bird seemed to litter the sky, but no falcon. So I give up and consider that maybe my seeking of signs is bordering on wickedness.

That afternoon Ty and I had committed to spend one hour together to make up our minds once and for all. We sat down in the exact same spot on our deck and began weighing out pros and cons for about the hundredth time. I couldn’t help but notice a strange absence of birds. And then, about ten minutes into our conversation, wouldn’t you know… one falcon flew over Animas and circled the sky round and round for the rest of our time together… no other birds, just one falcon.

So, with enough confidence that the Lord was in this, we proceeded with an offer ($40,000 less than our original offer) and the sellers accepted!

There was still one major hurdle, however: we needed to sell our current home – fast. Nightmare scenarios of how this could go wrong definitely crossed our minds. But no – God just blew us away in the whole thing! Our home sold on the first day it was listed with a cash offer from a neighbor two doors down – no inspection, no contingencies, no appraisal! We closed in nine days. Our lender told us it was the fastest closing he’d ever seen … crazy…

So, in what felt like a whirlwind of excitement and ferocity we managed to buy a house, sell a house, pack up a house, and set up a new home in a matter of three weeks!

Now that it’s over…. ahhhh, we plop our weary bodies down, shake our heads in amazement, and with broad smiles we sit back in wonder, “What just happened?!” …

🙂 WHAT just happened? 🙂

…and a still small voice seems to respond…

“It’s not too much to ask for the LaPlatas. Enjoy.”

“Before the mountains were born,
    before you gave birth to the earth and the world,
    from beginning to end, you are God.”
Psalm 90:2 NLT

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Niki Schemanski is a wife of seventeen years and homeschooling mother of three children. A love of singing led her into an early career in performing arts at eight years old. After college Niki became a worship pastor and has been in ministry ever since. She and her family reside in Durango, Colorado. (Read More: About The Author)