Blessings Galore!!!

I mentioned that in my last post that the month of April was a tough month on the financial front; however, miraculously and to a LARGE part because of Vince's parents, we were able to pay all of our bills this month. Some of you may be wondering why the month was so hard if our bills were paid. Well, up until April the exact amounts came in at just the right time that enabled us to pay ALL of our bills. However, in April we didn't have near enough money to go toward our bills and not only that but there was a mistake made with our food stamp money. The mistake resulted in a few hundred dollars less than what we were told we would have when it was issued so the correction left us with almost $100 in 2.5 weeks. Of course, we could charge our groceries but how do we pay the credit card bill when it comes in?

It is no surprise that as we were looking at what bills to let go, God would provide starting with a check that came in from Vince's brother, Shane, that enabled us to pay one of our bills and he had also taken the time to put some pictures from our last visit together on CD as well as burned some of Chip Ingram's podcasts to CD for Vince to listen and be encouraged regarding his job search situation. To top it off, he gave Vince a Starbucks gift card because each morning Vince gets up and takes his laptop to Starbucks to do all of his job searching and then returns home at night. When Vince was in Starbucks last week, one of the workers gave him a code so he could pay once for a cup of coffee and receive free refills all day long so this would enable his gift card to go a lot further.

Then, my mom went and bought us a pot roast, carrots, potatoes, corn on the cobb, green beans, and chocolate chip cookies so I could make a big, nice dinner that would carry us for a few days.

Then, Vince went to visit and spend the night with one of his grandmothers. She treated him to a nice dinner at Longhorn. Then, she gave him money which enabled us to pay another bill.

Then, my grandparents called to say they had a little something to give us and they gave us enough money to allow us to have groceries until we had money put back on our food stamp card. In addition, they had some treats for our boys like fresh strawberries because our boys love them, a loaf of bread, and kit-kat bars (one of my favorite candy bars).

Before we actually received the money from my grandparents, I was supposed to meet our good friend Elizabeth for a play date at the playground and for a picnic. I explained that we weren't able to do the picnic like I thought because the kind of food I had on hand for lunches like canned vegetables and such would be more difficult for a picnic. Well, it turned out that the playground and picnic weren't meant to be that day because of the rain. I was talking to her about our change of plans with the picnic as I was coming back from the allergist with Grant. Elizabeth must have hung up the phone and raided her pantry for items we could use to make dinner along with some other treats like Easter candy and popcorn because Vince worked at home that day because he had the house to himself and I got a call from him not long after talking to Elizabeth and he informed me that she had just dropped off some groceries for us. All I can say is WOW!!

While there has been days of anxiety and stress, I am still blown away at God's goodness and His people!!!