Stephen just returned home from his parents’ house with a ton of leftovers. When Dad called earlier, he said he had some BBQ plates, but I wasn’t prepared for what Stephen would bring home. 30 BBQ plates, 7 subs, and an entire cheese pizza. Nearly all of it went into the freezer. I’d say we’re set with ready-to-eat meals for a while.
I love it when God provides for us like that!
God has provided our first Bible College miracle today.
We’ve been trying to sell our old van for a long time now, and today I got a call. “Is the van still for sale?” After I said yes, they said that the buyer would be by our house in the next 10 minutes or so. Wow!
Less than three hours after that phone call, the buyer had paid us and was back here to pick up the van.
What gets me the most is how God provided. The amount the van sold for is almost exactly what we needed to pay Stephen’s first tuition payment. God is SO GOOD! We weren’t sure where the money would come from, though we knew from experience that God would provide it. God’s timing is perfect!
Oh wow – I am SO thankful right now!!!!
Almost a week ago, our heat and a/c unit quit working. I didn’t notice it right away – it wasn’t until it was almost 80 in the house on Wednesday that I realized that the air conditioning hadn’t been kicking on. I mentioned it to Stephen when he got home and decided to be thankful that it was going to be a cooler weekend.
Then the weekend came, and along with it, the cooler weather. When we got home from Stephen’s parents’ house Friday night, it was 57 in the house. I don’t mind it too much, but I was really worried about the boys being warm enough. That night, Stephen got up every hour to make sure the fire in the fireplace didn’t go out. I’m thankful for the fireplace – and for all the wood we have outside!
Mom and Dad loaned us a space heater the next day, and between that and keeping the fire going, we stayed warm enough. Saturday night and Sunday night Stephen repeated his get-up-every-hour routine. We stayed warm.
Sure, it was cooler in here than we would’ve liked. But it wasn’t freezing (we live in the Carolinas, after all), and we survived. Nothing a sweatshirt, and extra blanket, and a cup of hot coffee wouldn’t fix. ;O)
Today we called the repairman. It was an easy fix (it was just a blown fuse, Praise the Lord!), and didn’t cost much at all. We had both been praying that it wouldn’t cost much. Our furnace unit is old enough that we were concerned it would have to be replaced, but it didn’t.
I am so thankful! Thankful that it didn’t cost much to fix, and especially thankful for the wonderful husband I have that sacrificed his sleep for three nights so that the rest of us could stay warm. God is too good to me!
God answers prayers in the neatest ways sometimes.
Today the phone rang. “I have some clothes here that might fit Stephen. You can come look through them and see.”
We all hopped in the van and headed over there. It was so pretty today that the drive was a lot of fun in itself! While we were driving, I prayed for one thing – a white dress shirt in Stephen’s size. He’s been needing a new one for a while, but I hadn’t found one for him yet.
When we got there, there were far more clothes than I had expected. Stephen had come with us, so he headed to try some on that I wasn’t sure would fit him.
I am absolutely flabbergasted at the amount of clothes that came home with us! There were many button-down dress shirts, a lot of polos, some dress pants, a bunch of jeans and t-shirts, a sportcoat and even a suit. These aren’t cheap clothes either – it’s name brands like Van Huesen, Croft and Barrow, and Old Navy. Nice clothes. The box was so heavy I couldn’t lift it by myself.
The thing that really blessed me was that not only was there a long-sleeved white shirt in Stephen’s size, but there was a short-sleeved white shirt in there too. I hadn’t really been praying that God would send us new dress clothes for Stephen yet, because what he had was adequate. But it sure was fun tonight taking his older clothes out of the closet that were starting to look a bit worn. I’ve been replacing things a few at a time, but his part of the closet got a major overhaul today.
God answered my little prayer today, but met our needs in a big way. And to the one that gave us the clothes (you know who you are!), thank you for letting God use you to bless us today!
This is our new van – a Chevy Venture. It has everything I wanted in a van, and so many more extras than I’m used to. I absolutely LOVE this van!
I’ve written and re-written this post what seems like a hundred times in my head. It’s been a hard one to write.
The short story is that I’m pregnant. We are thrilled. I am seven weeks along, and due at the end of September.
There is a much longer story though too. I’ll try to shorten it some. After years of infertility, there is still a part of me that feels almost like I have to justify the fact that I now have (again) what so many women still long for.
On the other hand, I want to shout from the rooftops “Look what God did!” It wasn’t supposed to be easy for us to have children.
This pregnancy has not been without its surprises and fears though. After my miscarriage, I quit charting my cycles. I was tired of the emotions and was just ready for my cycle to return. So I put the BBT thermometer away and just quit. One day, I noticed possible ovulation symptoms, so I marked the date just in case. I caved a couple days early and tested on Stephen’s 30th birthday. To my surprise, there was a VERY faint second line. Ironically, Stephen wasn’t surprised at all.
Because my last cycle was my miscarriage, and was back in November, my OB worked me in almost immediately. That’s when the worry started. They did an ultrasound to date the pregnancy, and didn’t see a heartbeat. They scheduled another ultrasound for me two weeks later.
I called my mom on the way home from that appointment and told her the news, doing my best to keep from crying. I was terrified. I’d known that it was possible it was just too early, but it was SO hard not to worry.
The other ultrasound was this morning. We saw one healthy baby with one tiny little beating heart. That was the one thing I wanted to see today, and God was gracious enough to allow us to see that.
In retrospect, everything makes sense. We found out about this pregnancy at 3 weeks and 4 days. That is insanely early, but explains the VERY light tests and not seeing the heartbeat. Another thing is I’m pretty much exactly as far along as I suspected. That was pretty neat to discover (and was also thanks to everything I learned through all those years of infertility).
It is very strange to be typing this after all our years of infertility. We tried to conceive for almost six years. Now, here I am, pregnant again, for the third time in a year (we found out about the pregnancy before Caleb’s first birthday). That blows my mind. It also really blows my mind that we will now have two children under the age of two. It is something that I NEVER expected.
So. That’s my big announcement. Isn’t God GOOD? I am humbled and amazed to see how He chooses to work.
Today there was the neatest surprise in my mailbox.
There was a letter with no return address. Actually, it was a Christmas card.
Before I could open it, something fell out. It was a $100 Shell gas card. I just stood there in shock with my mouth hanging open.
The card wasn’t signed. There was no writing in the card at all.
The handwriting seems familiar, but I cannot place whose it is. It just looks familiar. But you know what? I don’t really want to know who sent it. It was a great surprise, and it’s more fun not knowing.
We’re driving to Michigan in 10 days to go visit my family for Christmas. This gas card is SUCH a blessing.
I don’t know who God impressed to send it, but it sure was a blessing to me today. I just wish I could tell them thank you!
Isn’t God GOOD???
I am so humbled by how God chooses to work in our lives. The ways He chooses to provide never cease to amaze me.
On Sunday, our thermostat quit working. Monday, we went to the store and bought a new one. Stephen installed it, and. . .nothing. We then discovered that we’d accidentally bought one that didn’t work with the system we have.
Stephen picked up a different one on his way home from work yesterday, and called a technician to come out here, just in case it wasn’t the thermostat that was broken.
Thankfully, it was just the thermostat. Now we have a brand new programmable thermostat, and the heat is working. I’m so thankful! We use our fireplace a lot in the winter, to offset our electric bill. We’ve had a way to keep warm, but it’s become pretty chilly in here at night when the fire has gone out. I’m thankful it hasn’t been colder outside.
I’ve heard over and over how a programmable thermostat can save you money, and we’ll see if it actually helps us. We didn’t buy it because it was programmable – we bought it because it was compatible with what we already have. It would be nice if it does help us save on our electricity!
Here’s what is a real blessing to me though. Yesterday I started a new piano student. The tuition money my student paid me came just in time for us to pay the technician to fix our heat.
God’s timing truly is perfect.
What a praise. Stephen drives 300 to 500 miles a week for work. As of today, he had already driven 400 miles. That was before he left for work this morning. He needed to get gas today.
I called Stephen on his cell a while after he left to let him know which account to use for gas. I had just gotten off the phone with him when his boss called. I told him Stephen had already left, but that he should be able to reach him on his cell.
Then Stephen called me back. His boss had called to tell him to stay home because of gas prices. Since he’d left two hours earlier though, he told him he’d meet him somewhere and fill his car up with gas.
I was floored.
Then – his boss ended up following him home so that he could gas up my van too. He would have – except every single gas station in our town is out of gas (I cannot wait for this gas shortage to be over with).
I’m not disappointed about not having gas in my van – I didn’t have plans for the next day or so anyway. I am extremely humbled that he would think to consider my van.
God is so good. I love seeing how He provides in ways I never expect!
Monday night we were given fourteen packages of venison. We LOVE venison!
Some of the things on this week’s menu got changed around some as a result – yesterday Stephen put some stew meat in the crockpot with some onion. I thought I was going to go crazy because the house smelled SO good ALL day! LOL! We ate it with some brown rice and green beans. Yum.
Today the leftover broth and rice will be turned into tonight’s soup. We already had soup on the menu, so that works out well. It’ll be similar to New England Boiled Dinner, but there will be some brown rice in it instead of potatoes. The broth had such a rich flavor yesterday that I’m sure it will make delicious soup for tonight. I might make some whole grain rolls to go with it, but I haven’t decided on that yet.
How’s this for God’s timing? I bought groceries last week, but didn’t buy all the meat that was on my shopping list. I have a couple rainchecks I was planning on using, but they were for a different store that I didn’t have time to stop at that day. I hadn’t made it there since then to get the meat yet, and we were almost out of meat. Then God just dropped all that venison into our laps. :O) I love it. God provided, right when we needed it. It’s also an encouragement to me because the stew meat and cubed steak are cuts that I rarely buy. I try to buy those cuts when they’re on sale, but it’s been a while. It was so nice to be able to enjoy them again! I love it when God provides – and when He provides things that are normally once-in-a-while items for us – it’s even more of a blessing!
