The House of Stuart – Part 4, God Must Love The Spartans

The Roots of a Spartan

There are many things I consider my favorite things: Jesus, my family & friends, my cats Anya and Nala, Celine Dion, football, mac & cheese etc. You know, the normal things. But there something special about one of the items in the list above….

I have grown up in Michigan most of my life. It is the place I live and call home. Because of this, my loyalty lies with all of the professional sports teams: Detroit Pistons, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, and the Detroit Lions. Yes, even the Lions. If the Cubs can win the World Series, there is hope for the Lions. But there is one team in Michigan that I am intertwined with on a personal level. Not only do I share my fandom with them, my very bloodline is marked by their name-the Michigan State Spartans.

As I have mentioned in my previous blogs, my brother Anthony and I were born in Greece. We were adopted from two separate Greek families when we were about three years old. As we jokingly like to say, this makes us “purebreds.” For Anthony and I—although we take immeasurable pride in being Americans—we love the fact we are Greek. We carry something many don’t; we are real Spartans.

It is not lost on us that we were adopted into a family where our mother, her mother, and other relatives attended and graduated from MSU. How can we not take pride in the Green & White? Our family went there, we grew up less than an hour away from the university and our heritage is rooted in the Spartans. We were meant to be MSU Spartans.

So why am I telling you all this? Because the way God has intervened in my life shows He does indeed have a sense of humor.

When I began house-hunting in Grand Rapids in November 2016, I quickly learned that the process of finding a home was going to be harder than I thought. Unlike the national and even state level of home buying, Grand Rapids is a seller market. Homes were being sold minutes after being placed on the market. There were many times I would inquire about a home only to get a reply from my realtor that the house was sold or that I would need to offer a higher bid on its already overvalued price.

How can we not take pride in the Green & White? Our family went there, we grew up less than an hour away from the university and our heritage is rooted in the Spartans. We were meant to be MSU Spartans.

One of the last homes I looked at, I found myself in a bidding war. I remember thinking, “This is the farthest I’ve gotten, I’m so close!” Long story short, I was one of three people bidding. My offer would have to be significantly higher to get the house. I was by no means financially ready to overbid the seller’s price, so I had to back out. I was frustrated and emotionally spent. I was tired of looking and getting outmatched. I was done.

But just as I was about to tell my realtor that I was going to put a pause on house-hunting, she tells me, “I was talking to my co-worker about our situation and he asked me if we had looked at the house down the road. The co-worker’s brother had lived there and it is for sale again. It’s been on the market for a while. Wanna check it out?” I—with low expectations and even lower enthusiasm—responded, “Sure, let’s go see it.”

I don’t want to bore you with too many details, but the house around the corner is what became my home-Stuart. But what made this time different from all the rest was what was waiting for me inside. The house was vacant since the seller had already moved so there were little furniture and no time constraints. My realtor and I took our time looking everything over. I remember liking the house but at the same time trying not to get my hopes up. I did not want to be disappointed again.

After visiting all the rooms on the top and main level, the basement was the last area to see. The basement is split into two: a finished area and a laundry/storage area. The finished area is located next to the stairs. You have to walk through a basement door to reach the laundry room. Here was where my surprise awaited me. Two intersecting, brick walls painted green with the left wall containing a white stenciled Spartan helmet logo and the right wall with State’s “S” logo. To say I laughed would be an understatement. I immediately turned to my realtor and said, “I’ll take the house!” I was shocked and humbled in the same moment.

About two months later, I was signing the paperwork for Stuart. As my hand started cramping from signing my name, I laughed again. I was moments away from owning a house. A house that was never on my radar but on God’s; even before my first utterance of “Go Green!” I still smile and chuckle as this confirmed my real suspicion: God is a Spartan fan after all.