Timing is Everything

I've been interested in refinancing my mortgage for a while.  I got my house/mortgage before the economic downturn, so comparatively speaking my interest rate was higher than the current rate.  It's been an interesting process.  The day I had been speaking with another teacher about it at school (who had recently gone through the process), I came home, dropped my stuff off, and the phone rang.  I picked it up (a rare occurrence) and it was my bank, asking if I'd consider refinancing.  (I have my mortgage with them in the first place).  A little more than an hour later, we had talked through the numbers, I had crunched them in Excel, and my Excel calculations were matching up pretty well with what the guy on the other end was telling me, it was about a percent and a half better than what I was currently paying, so I decided to start the process.  However, there were a few snags along the way - nothing major, just minor, time consuming details.  The problem was I had locked in a rate that I didn't want to lose, and I didn't want to have to apply for an extension. 

My rate was locked in until today, and we're not done with the process yet.  There were small amounts of frustration on my part, as I'd really rather this were done..then again I've had so much going on, I haven't had much time to dwell on it.  I think there were larger amounts of frustration on the part of my bank, because they like having things finished, plus when things aren't going as smoothly as they predicted for the customer, the customer (me) may have a tendency to get angry.  I got an e-mail from the person managing the refinancing yesterday, informing me that they would go ahead with the extension process.  And then I got a phone call today.

In the phone conversation today, the loan officer was telling me about the details on extending the rate lock in.  First, he reaffirmed what exactly needs to be done for the closing to happen, which is one document which is out of both of our hands, we're just waiting on a response.  And then he thanked me for how patient and understanding I've been through this process [reinforcing my belief that there are times when people get very upset at him when things don't go the way they expect].  And then he told me that when they went to do the extension yesterday, they found that rather than extending it, I was eligible to lock into a lower rate!  So really, the fact that we haven't heard back from this other company is now totally in my favor.  And the funny thing is, I haven't been worried about it.  It's been on my mind from time to time, but there's been nothing I can do about it, so I haven't worried.  And this just goes to show again, how God's timing is not my timing, but He has an ultimate plan.  Praise be to God!