Flat Sweet Flat

I sat there, staring at the computer screen, completely stressed out. My head ached and it felt like an impossible task, a real needle-in-a-haystack sort of thing. We must have seen dozens of options already, and none of them screamed “pick me!” for one reason or another. This one’s too much, that one looks scary, and—wait a minute, what do they mean “no shower”‽ It looked like we were going to have to raise our rent budget as high as we could afford to get something doable.

I was over it, and it was only the first day of flat hunting. I’d had this little detail of needing to procure shelter hanging over my head almost since we’d arrived in South Africa. It was hard enough to find something decent in our own country, in our own home town; I couldn’t begin to imagine looking in a place I didn’t know at all. How would I know what neighborhoods were “safe” (a rare word in ZA)? How would I know what was a reasonable price? Todd sent out something like 20 email inquiries to the various real estate sites, while I decided to do something really useful like worry and hold my pounding head. 

On the second day of our search two things happened: first, we got an appointment to see one of the places we’d inquired about. It was what they call here a “garden cottage,” which means it is a little apartment attached to someone else’s property. Think guest house, if you like. They’re extremely common in Pretoria, and can be very nice. We took our chances and the realtor was kind enough to give us a viewing. 

It didn’t take long. Once inside the front door we’d seen about 50% of the place. It was tiny. You can call it “cute” if you want to; I don’t. The first thing I observed (granted, I was looking for it) was the absence of an oven. I don’t mind to whittle my expectations down when I need to, but there’s just something about trying to bake without an oven that makes me panicky. 

The rest of the cottage was...ok, but overall very tiny and sorely lacking in storage. We didn’t bring that much with us, but what we did bring we wanted to unpack. We thanked the realtor and left having accomplished something: we’d just eliminated one choice from our list. Yay...

But now for the second thing that happened that day: the couple we were staying with told us of a friend they had who was trying to find renters for the flat he owned. It wouldn’t be available for a few more weeks when the current tenant moved out, but they  called the owner for us and he said he’d show us the place the next day. We went for it, obviously. We had nothing at all to lose. 

Before the owner picked us up for our appointment, I asked Todd what it would take for him to settle on this place without looking at any more. You can see how desperate I was to just be DONE looking and we’d only been at it for two days! His response was that it would have to be perfect to keep him from looking any further. My heart sank a little, even though I’d never seen the flat in question. Perfect? That was a lot to ask for. 

Or was it? To make a whirlwind story even more of a whirl but minus the wind, the flat was, well, perfect! It exceeded our expectations and was at the bottom of our price range! the kitchen was an actual room, rather than a cubbyhole carved out of the living area. The living/dining room was large, and had big, beautiful windows. There was a half and a full bath, which included a shower (who knew I would have to make that one of my make-or-break points?)! The master bedroom was huge, the guest bedroom was great, the natural lighting was impressive, and the back garden was lovely. It was only about five kilometers (roughly three miles) from the OM office, and the neighborhood was quiet.

When we got back to our room, we set about immediately knocking off places we had considered but that now didn’t stand up to the competition. Too much? Gone. Too small? Gone. Too far away from the office? Gone. By the time we were finished, Todd had to admit that his big, unrealistic criteria was met: the flat was perfect. He called the owner that night expressing our interest, and by the following Monday (two days later) we’d signed the papers. 

Looking back on how quickly and perfectly God met our needs, I’m ashamed to admit how stressed and worried I let the whole thing make me. If I had really believed he had it under control, maybe I wouldn’t have been so surprised to watch him provide. We’ve been in our charming little flat for nearly a month and still thank God for the blessing that it is. It’s a constant reminder of how faithful he is to take care of his children, and how sometimes he even goes beyond our needs and takes us right up to abundance :) 

We apologize for the quality of the video but our internet constraints do not permit us to load a larger one at this time.