The house we are renting is in foreclosure, what can we do to prevent it and keep the home?

Good Morning: I'm trying to get some information in reference to a home which I'm leasing in Conyers Georgia. I've been in the home for 18 months, and when we first leased the home our payment was for 1,283.00 a month, then after about four months into the lease Ie asked if we could pay more, because the owner was going through some financial difficulties, and we agreed. So we started making payments of 1,483.00 for about (6) months. Once again she came to me and my wife and asked if we could pay 200.00 more on the mortgage pymt. and we agreed because she knew that we wanted to purchase the home, so we've been making payments to her in the amount of 1,683.00 a month for the past (6) months. When we first signed the lease agreement it was for (24) months, giving us an opportunity to clear up some credit issues and allowing us to purchase the home within that time frame, which we were planing on seeking a mortgage loan sometime in 2008. Since we just found out that the property is going into foreclosure, and we've been paying the amount of the mortgage, we wanted to know if we can continue paying the mortgage, or taking over the note and have it transfered over into our names. We also have all of our rent receipts verifying that we paid this monthly amount. I know we had some credit issues in the past that we've been trying to get straighten out, and that is taking some time to do, and I know that by the first of the year we should be more in a position to try to get a mortgage loan in our name. We do have the income to make a monthly payment up to 1,700.00 a month, but it's just that the credit isn't strong enough just yet, and everyone keeps looking at our past and not giving us an opportunity to prove that we can take care of a mortgage payment. I'm not sure about all the legal technicalities involved in this, but since we have been living in the home for the past (18) months we want to try and recover it at no lost to anyone. I know the mortgage company is in business to make money, and this is why I'm pleading with your company for assistance. We really need your help because we don't want it to go into foreclosure any further, we just need to know what can we do to resolve this issue so that everyone can be happy. We don't want to loose our home so please help us in finding a solution to this problem.