House of My Dream

Don’t be pushed by your problems.

Be led by your dreams.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

My husband and I bought what we thought was our dream home — a Frank Lloyd Wright–style house in Texas with a gorgeous live oak tree gracing the front yard. After extensive renovations, we moved in. One week later, our joints started aching, and we felt as if we’d aged ten years. The culprit? Extreme allergies from live oak pollen. We desperately needed to find a new home — fast.

Thus began the dreaded search for a house with no live oaks, an almost impossible task in a city where these enormous trees shaded nearly every yard. Our caring, enthusiastic real estate agent was determined to find the perfect house for us. But as eager as we were to leave the terrible allergies behind, we were equally determined not to be pressured into buying another home that was not a good fit for us.

That resolve was underscored one Sunday morning at church after several exhausting weeks of nonstop house hunting. Our desire to hold out for the ideal house had begun to wane, and I felt myself starting to cave in to our highly motivated salesperson’s timetable.

As I stood to sing, a strong voice rose inside me: “Don’t buy a house just to buy one.”

It was a clear directive.

However, our successful “top sales” agent thought we needed to accomplish the goal of finding a new house quickly. When that failed to happen, her caring morphed into pushing. Because our goals no longer aligned, we made a mutual decision to part ways.

A few days later, this recent parting occupied my mind as I stumbled back to bed following a middle-of-the-night bathroom trip. I sent a heartfelt petition heavenward, asking for help in finding a new real estate agent. When my alarm went off, I was jolted out of a deep sleep. Stunned, I awoke to something extraordinary.

I lay still, my mind flooded with the memory of a vivid dream — rich details of pulling up to a two-story home and entering a lovely foyer. More images emerged: elegant arched doorways, hardwood floors, high ceilings. “This is exactly the house we have been looking for!” I cried out in my dream.

I reached over, picked up my notebook, and recorded as much of it as I could remember. Believing God speaks through dreams just as He did in biblical times, my husband and I had kept dream journals for years.

I was beyond excited. I had lifted up one prayer, but God had answered an even bigger one. There was just one problem: I had no address. How would I find the house?

Hoping to locate it, I scanned listings online — even For Sale by Owner homes that are occasionally advertised — but nothing came close. I called my husband, who was out of town on business, and shared the dream with him. The next afternoon took me to a nearby doctor’s office for a weekly allergy shot. On the way back, I asked for guidance to the house of my dream. Slowly, prayerfully, I turned down one street and then another, scanning for vital “For Sale” signs in yards of two-story homes. Nada.

Then, I rounded a corner and saw it — a stately, two-story yellow brick house with a For Sale by Owner sign in front. Could this be the one? With my hand shaking, I copied down the phone number and then drove straight home and called the owner.

An answering machine took my call. After several anxious hours, an older woman called back and set up an appointment for the next morning. As we were about to end the conversation, she asked, “By the way, what time did you see the house?”

Not an odd question, perhaps, except I’d heard it before — spoken in my dream!

“Around 4:30,” I responded. “Why?”

“Great,” she said. “You saw my For Sale by Owner sign before I listed the house with my friend at 5 p.m. That means I can sell it directly to you and save the commission.”

I hung up, taken aback. Our conversation precisely mirrored a mystifying one in my dream and explained why it was not listed online. Yet, I was miraculously led to the house anyway. I slept very little that night.

It felt like déjà vu as I walked into the entryway the next morning and looked around in wonderment, enveloped by beauty and light. It was an enchanting old home built in 1927, full of the now familiar arched doorways, original floors, tall ceilings and windows from my dream. As I walked through the home, it checked almost all of the boxes on our wish list. Clearly, it was the dream house we were meant to find. My excitement was tinged with mounting anxiety because the house was now listed in the Multiple Listing Service, and the whole world would know about this delightful gem.

I called my husband as soon as I returned home. “What do you think we should do?” I asked, barely able to breathe.

“Make an offer on it today!” he practically shouted.

My heart was pounding. Things were moving way too fast.

We had no real estate agent and needed one quickly — the reason for my early morning prayer in the first place. One whom I had recently met and trusted came to mind. I called, and she agreed to work with us on negotiations.

After my husband returned the next day, the three of us toured it. Even though our current house had not yet sold, we made the tough decision to buy the new one. We never regretted it.

We loved living in that beautiful home with its thirty-two tall, elegant windows that filled it with natural light — and no live oaks in the yard. We made significant upgrades, and it grieved us to sell it twelve years later to move to another state. We believed it was a gift given to us in a dream, after all, and we wanted to pass it on to someone who would treasure it as much as we had.

We left a “What We Love about This House” flyer on the dining-room table for potential buyers, describing its numerous assets, and included a special reference to finding it as the result of a dream.

The third couple who came to see it bought it. A few days later, we sat in the real estate agent’s office feeling a little sad about selling when a letter arrived from the buyers containing their deposit. Also included was a thoughtful note expressing their love of old homes and the careful restoration they had done on their current home. The letter closed with, “We saw a number of other homes in our search but were totally convinced this was the house we wanted. One of the biggest deciding factors was that it had been given to the owners in a dream.”

The blessing of the dream that had set in motion our purchase of this wonderful home was now carrying it forward through another sale and blessing the new owners. A priceless gift had come full circle.

— Ruth Rogers —