Blessed

My family was blessed today. Actually, we were blessed sometime in the past few weeks, but just found out about it this morning. I debated even writing about it because it means I have to tell some other personal stuff (I know—seems like I share A LOT here, huh—what else is sacred, right? I actually DO have some stuff that just seems too private to let the world know about).

The past few months have been more challenging financially for us than they have been in a long time. We both work hard, but neither of our career choices has given us the ability yet to make a lot of money. I work for a church where I am blessed, but still make a substantial amount less than the last job I had. Brian works for himself and he has had some setbacks that I won’t go into detail about here, but they have caused us to question whether or not we are doing what we should be doing right now.

Last week, we made the decision to get rid of our iPhones and to drop Hope from soccer. Both were hard. First of all, let me address the iPhone. I feel very materialistic for grieving the loss of it—esp. since it is a luxury. I can justify it by telling you how few luxuries I allow, myself and all the other things you hear defensive people say. Fact is, even if another phone is only $20 cheaper a month, its $20 more to add into our budget.

Then there’s Hope’s soccer. Caroline decided she wanted a break from dance last fall and we have not pursued anything else with her yet, partly due to finances, partly due to just being busy all the time and my unwillingness to take on another thing at this moment. But, Hope loves soccer. She will never play professionally, but she loves being on the field and she is surrounded by girls who appreciate her leadership gifts and love her. It has been instrumental in building her self-confidence this past year. Not to mention that we adore her coach. I was heartbroken at the thought of telling Hope about our decision and told Brian he had to do it (see what teamwork we have in our marriage?).

Last Saturday, she played the best game she has ever played. She didn’t score any goals or make any game-saving moves, but she played solidly and consistently and was always in the right place, making the right move. It was bittersweet watching her and seeing how far she has come in the past year, yet knowing she was not going to be able to go any further.

So while we were procrastinating the inevitable, someone chose to bless us. Our coach told us this morning that our spring soccer fees had been paid by an anonymous donor. REALLY? My first thought was that Stan (her coach), in his generosity, was taking the hit himself—not because Hope is an all-star, but because he’s just a good guy. He swore to me that was not the case, and that the league would not tell him who had taken care of it.

Huh. So, once again, God has chosen to give abundantly to my family. We have food, we have shelter, we even have love (most days-ha!)—that’s really all we need. Soccer, while well-loved by my family—is not on the list of things we HAVE to have to survive.

BUT, God chose to bless us anyway, again. In a BIG way.