Ok, it's done! We've officially been released from the "death pledge". Did you know the word origin of "mortgage" (mort + gage) literally translates into Death Pledge? I'd also heard it meant "Death Grip", but whatever, because I don't have one anymore!!! We are now half a million dollars more free than we were an hour ago. Here's something weird though. We're not sure who we sold the house to.
For the past 9 months we've been renting to a very distinctly Asian family with a teenaged son. My old neighbor tells me they're really quiet and they hardly ever leave the house, but the son, a high-schooler, is nice. They're rent check always came a little bit early and they never complained or asked us to fix anything, even though there were definitely things wrong with the house. The Title company they arranged the settlement through was a very distinctly Asian settlement company. I wasn't there (I did everything via power of attorney), but after it was done, my husband called and said. "If you had been at this settlement, who would you have expected to show up at the other end?" "The ------ family, the buyers." I said. "Exactly!" he replied. "However, a very American and very tall white doctor was signing the papers." My husband, trying to figure it out, began asking him a few questions about the family that lives in our house and the name of the guy we've been dealing with, but he had no idea who he was talking about. Not wanting to press him further he just decided to leave it a mystery. My husband said, "Now, I'm sitting there and I know I'm not drunk and I know I'm not in the Twilight Zone, but I'm thoroughly confused." My husband encouraged him about the sale, because the doctor was concerned about the market continuing to drop.
I guess we traded places with him in a way. We let go of this house so we could be free and because prices were dropping. He bought it and not 15 minutes into the ownership, started carrying the burden of it. I'm going to pray for the guy though, and hope he and his family enjoy living there.
As for me, I say - "Whatever." God answered our prayer, and it just goes to show that even when you think you know what's going to happen, you really don't.
