I have been trying all day to think of how to write this post that would express how thankful we are for the wonderful blessings that have been provided to us in the last 24 hours. I know that not all of my readers believe in God, but I have to say that for me, I see God in all of this. It’s probably trendy to attribute blessings to God, especially at this time of year, but I have seen blessings like this all my life – enough to believe that it’s not just random and that God is not just a great big Santa Claus in the sky. I don’t know if He gives us trials so that we can trust Him, or so to show us that we are powerless and He is powerful. I feel like it’s probably both.

If you read this blog much, you know we have been facing some tricky times with our unbreakable lease and dual rent/mortgage after buying our new home in November – so much that we cancelled gifts this Christmas. We were amazingly blessed by a Secret Santa who brought us wonderful gifts we can give to the children, for them to see Santa (which they did – pic to come soon, I need to scan it!), and a gift card toward our Christmas meal (got it today!).

In the last week, a potential renter has come along. We are very thankful that it is someone Christian knows, so the house would be helpful in reducing this person’s commute and hopefully beneficial to both parties. The only catch is that, in order to make it affordable for this person, we would have to pay their rent for January plus an incentive equal to one more month. This person would move at the end of December (we’ve already paid December even though the house is empty), meaning that we’d get out of the lease after paying 2.5 months rent while someone else is living there. There is also an additional fee for breaking the lease. The total amount was very daunting for us, but just barely workable. We knew it was our only shot, because the other potential tenants have just not been working out in the last month. So we took a deep breath and prepared to let go of pretty much everything. We actually felt OK with this. My husband, for all his theological interest in unbelief, actually has an amazing faith. He encouraged me that we would be OK and I agreed.

As soon as we had decided to move forward with this arrangement, we received a very generous gift from some friends at our church. Which might seem weird, except that it’s sort of something we believe in. There’s a passage in Acts 2 of the Bible that explains how the early believers in Jesus came together and shared everything they had – people who had more gave to people who had less, and that way everyone had enough. You know, kind of like socialism! (that was a joke) When we were dual-income-no-kids, there were times that we gave similar gifts to our friends. It felt weird to be on the receiving end at first, but I remember being on the giving end and I know that we’ll be there again one day. I can’t wait!

Shortly after that miracle, another miracle came along in the form of a bonus for Christian’s work that was much larger than we anticipated. We really do not count on bonuses or even expect them, so this was amazing. Especially in this economy. We are blessed that he works for a company who is doing very well at this time.

We are in awe of God’s amazing goodness. I would like to thank each one of you for your prayers, and even all your help in spreading the word to rent our house. So many little encouragements along the way.

We definitely do not deserve all that has been given to us. But isn’t that really the message of this season? We do not deserve the baby in the manager who was born just to die in our place. And yet… there He is.

Thank You.