I've been remiss about recounting the miracles and blessings
of the past week. A week ago Saturday,
after two months and lost hopes, Isaac found my wedding ring hidden in the most
random place-the crevice between his bed frame and mattress. I had set that Saturday apart for deep
cleaning my room and his. The hope and
intention was to find my ring which we’d assumed the girls had taken from the
bathroom counter. But when the day of
cleaning came, I was thinking more about the organization and dejunking that
needed to happen, than I was about looking for my ring. Actually, I wasn't thinking about my ring at
all. Isaac was working on his room and
had the vacuum ready to suck up all the garbage in the nooks and crannies. Chris had the thought to make sure he picked up
the big stuff first. And my ring
happened to be in the big stuff. Isn't
God good?
The next item to tackle was the missing library book. It had been almost two weeks, and I was
stressing over that more than my ring.
Silly, really. But the idea of
that extra quarter being charged daily to my account made me tense. I had searched everywhere. Every book on every shelf. Under the couches. Inside cupboards. The van.
Backpacks. Even asked Grandma if
she’d seen it. There was no where left
to look. I kept praying and asking for
help without so much as a hint of direction.
Then Saturday, I said another sort of prayer as I wandered around. “Heavenly Father, I’d much rather spend my
time doing family history work, so if you’ll tell me where that book is, I’ll devote
that time I would have spent searching doing family research instead.” And then I corrected myself, “I’ll do the family history work anyway, but
if you could help me find that book, I’d really appreciate it.” Then I let it go. Sunday afternoon, I spent a few hours working
on familysearch.org. The most addicting
website, I've discovered. Later, I went
to put the girls to bed. I randomly
decided to reach for the pink book bin up on the top shelf. As I browsed through the books, there it
was. The book that had gone missing two
weeks previous. Was that not correlated
to the prayer I’d just said the day before? Again, God is good.
March was also month of extra expenses. I felt impressed at a home-school conference
to purchase a math training program that I believed would help London. (More on the miracles happening there on another
day.) Other expenses surfaced putting me
in a position where I needed to find an extra $500 in the budget. Tight as we already are, but not willing to
dip into savings or take more from the business, I set about praying for ways
to make that extra cash. I cut back on
the food budget and got creative in the kitchen with pantry items. I looked at upcoming expense and knew exactly
how much was needed to keep us a float for the rest of month. And then the miracles started happening. I sold Mishel’s printer, (another miracle
story to an answered prayer). I got an
unexpected check from Young Living. I
sold 6 qts. of anti-plague. A few of my
expenses were actually postponed, and when the end of the month came, I still
had money in the bank. I believe in
miracles.
On to the printer miracle.
Mishel put her printer into my possession back in October. It took me a while to post on KSL, but we
hoped for a bite by Christmas. Not so
much as a nibble came. In February I
lowered the price by half. Still no one
contacted. I called a friend in the pawn
shop business and asked if it was something they would take. The feedback was obvious. Electronics are hard to sell, you have to
lower the price and keep your item on the front viewing page. A little overwhelming, and time consuming to
consider. The following Monday, as I was
pondering, I said a prayer pleading for help.
I wanted to be spared the time and energy that could be put to better
use elsewhere, and I prayed that Heavenly Father would help me find a
buyer. Less than three hours later, I
had a phone call. Or a missed call and
voice mail, I should say. I returned the
call and left a voice mail. The highest
stress came from wondering if I’d missed the only opportunity as I waited for
him to return my voice mail. But it
came. He bargained for a lower
price. I explained how we’d already
lowered it so much, but not wanting to lose the sell, I said we could probably
drop it another $10-20. And felt
somewhat deflated. He came by. Nice guy.
Friendly to the girls. Didn't
bother me to take the whole contraption out of the packaging but said, “It
looks like it’s been well –taken care of” (Good job, Mishel!) And then asked if he could write a
check. Another deflation. Checks are risky. But it was a business check, and I
consented. (Never been one to say no to
others.) He made some comment as he
handed me the check, but I didn't quite hear it. As soon as he left, I went to make a mobile
deposit and saw he’d actually written the check for the entire amount I’d
posted it for. My heart swelled. I felt so much gratitude. I sent him a quick text of thanks. His response, “Tell those cute girls they
just made mommy a few extra dollars.” I
will have to remember that! I might have
to include them on all my business transactions.
Was it coincidence that this buyer came the same day as my
plea to Heavenly Father? No. A kind
God intervened to answer my desperate prayer.
I can’t finish this recounting with out sharing the blessing
that came from serving last week. I’d
signed up to help a sister in the ward with cleaning her house. The day came and I felt miserable. Head-achy miserable. Whole-body miserable. But I went anyway. That’s what you do. And I helped for an hour and a half. I came home and wanted to just fall in
bed. But there were things to do. One of them being that I’d been reminded (more
like informed, I don’t remember having been told before) that Isaac was in
charge of an exposition for the boy’s group.
Pilots-of freedom. A sort of book
club/leadership club for a group of fifteen home-schooled boys. And Isaac was in charge of teaching them all
how to make something. Nope. Not gonna happen. I needed to lie down and not get up for the rest
of the day. I let him take action and
figure it out. He brought out a book of
boy crafts and found one that looked easy enough, only needing three
materials. It seemed doable, we only
needed to buy balloons. Chris could pick
them up on the way home. Oh, but
wait. We also needed toilet paper
rolls. And fifteen. That would be impossible. Or would it?
At that moment I remembered something.
Earlier that day while cleaning up the neighbor’s bedroom, we’d come
across a bag of empty toilet paper rolls she had saved for a project which never got completed. A quick text , a quick search, and a dive in
the dumpster and she had them saved for me.
Okay, really she just took the plastic bag out of the garbage can, but
diving in the dumpster sounds more exciting.
Or daring. Either way you look at
it, that saved the day. Isaac was able
to do his project. Again, coincidence? I dare not assume so.
I feel such an abundance of love and gratitude for my kind
and loving Heavenly Father who has intervened multiple times on my behalf this
month. He has blessed me beyond measure
and shown me once again that He is over all.
