Blessings

I am feeling pretty blessed these days.  I'll share with you some of the highlights...not for our glory but for God's.  I believe as we seek to honor Him with our lives and choices he blessed those actions.  Not with a broad stroke.  Not promising rainbows and butterflies and easy sailing all the way.  Not always as we'd expect or hope.  But blesses us none the less.

Jason's Raise Came In!
Jason was up for a pay raise that we knew was coming, but didn't know quite when.  I was getting anxious to find out what it was so we could redo our budget and look at preschools and it just wasn't happening.  Then one day a lightbulb went on..."Worrying won't help.  I can't do a thing about it."  So imagine this...we quieted ourselves before the Lord one night, prayed about it and stopped fretting.  Days later, it came in.

We Paid Off The Car!
Our tax return was FAR bigger than I had expected.  We  felt super strongly led to give our tithe portion to some friends that are adopting and that was REALLY fun!  I would love to tell you that the rest of it went to other fun things like a swingset for Ella or a bigger TV, but nope.  This is where we continue to try to honor God with all of our decisions and make the good (and not always fun) financial choices NOW that we didn't make in the past!  WE PAID OFF THE CAR!!!  Last year, after much hard work, we paid off the credit card and cut it up.  This year we paid off the car!  And we're just going to keep on trucking toward that debt free goal!  It feels SO great!

We're At Peace About Pre-school!
Deciding on a preschool for Ella has been really hard.  So hard, in fact, that I turned to God rather quickly (not my norm I'm sad to say) and have been bathing it in paryer for months and months and months.  Jason and I both felt strongly led toward Montessori, but the price was flat out out of the question, the money just simply wasn't there.  But...with the money freed up by paying off the car, and added money from the raise we could afford it...by the skin of our teeth.  It would, however, leave little left for all of the other things we want to do (save, pay off debt, house renovations, things for new baby).  We prayed, crunched numbers, looked at other schools, crunched numbers and prayed some more.  We finally decided it was important enough to bite the bullet...Montessori was it...only to find out that the Montessori school was full.

After looking at numerous other schools and having my heart broken by a little girl who kept repeating that she didn't want to go to any of them, she wanted to go where her friend goes (Montessori).  We found one that is delightful and signed her up for the fall.  Although we remain on the waitlist for Montessori and I am praying for an opening...God may be saying "no" to that option.  He may be doing it to look out for our better good financially or in some other way.  He knows better than we do, so I'm going to trust Him with that and we feel at peace with it in His hands.

Blessings in Daddy's Travel for Work!
It is no secret.  I am not a fan of Jason traveling for work.  It's hard...even harder when I'm pregnant.  I don't sleep well.  I'm not at ease.  I miss him like crazy.  I get exhauseted and impatient.  Our connection in our relationship suffers etc. etc.  Right now there are trips coming up everywhere.  And with where he was on the list, we were certain he would have to go to San Diego for TWO MONTHS at end of April.  (Just to put the in perspective, that's two months without him when I'm 28-35 weeks pregnant.)  Oh, I was dreading it!  And, if I'm honest, had not brought it to God very much...just resigned myself to the fact and fretted.  Well...A TWO WEEK trip opened up in Conn. (3 hour drive away) a few weeks ago.  Two of Jason's co-workerd were ahead of him on the list and qualified for this trip.  They could have taken it.  But they knew that Jason has a toddler and a pregnant wife.  AND THEY LET HIM HAVE IT!  Oh, bless their hearts!  And thank-you God for your mercy, even when we don't ask!  Added blessings... Ella and I went and visited him over the long weekend, went to the Mystic Aquarium AND they finished the job ahead of schedule so he's coming home early!  Again, I say, Blessings!

Just really wanted to give a shout out to God right now, and something for me to look back on and remember his faithfulness when roads are not quite so smooth.