a big blessing in a small envelope

with all of the hustle and bustle of christmas, doing what we can to donate to various charities or toy drives, and trying to buy for two families this year, kevin and i have felt the affects of low finances lately. i'm sure it also has a lot to do with us trying to figure out combining our incomes and taking care of debts. we've been trying to be reasonable about our spending and making sure bills are paid before we spend money on anything fun. it just seems that we never have anything left over to save. it's very sad, but i actually don't think we even have enough saved right now to pay for another month's rent. i knew it would be paycheck to paycheck getting married so young, but i never quite understood what that meant. kevin usually gets paid every saturday via a check in the mail. this weekend, the check didn't come and we were relying on that money to pay bills. so, we did what every couple would do...we panicked!

this year for christmas, we even asked for gas giftcards and giftcards to stores to buy groceries and the daily necessities. not sure we'll get any because most people think a giftcard to safeway or chevron is boring, but to me...it would be like sweet victory :) lately, on our growing list were daily needs like laundry soap, dish soap, shampoo, toilet paper, cotton balls, etc. i know i could have put it on my credit card, but we are trying to not use the card and get old debts paid off quickly. i've been praying that god would provide for us and i've been really working on trusting in his timing. this morning we even ran out of shampoo!! i mean, that was the last of the spare bottle i always keep for in-case-of-emergency-type situations...no hotel bottles, no travel size, nada. then what do you know, in the mail today was a little white envelope. kevin's aunt and uncle sent us what looked like a regular christmas card. on the outside was a picture of mary holding the baby jesus. it was beautiful and i kept admiring it. on the inside were two rather large giftcards to target. it was such a blessing! and so very unexpected! :) not only did god provide for our need (with a store as close to our apartment as possible!), but he did it in a way to honor his son through the card that kevin's aunt chose. the lord definitely works in mysterious ways!

now i'm sitting here with a smile on my face, watching kevin unpack our two bags of daily necessities from target. we got so much with only 1 of the 2 giftcards! i don't think i've ever been so happy to be able to purchase toilet paper or dish soap! it's just the fact that i knew god would provide and he did. we are both so lucky to have such a generous and caring family. i feel very blessed and can't wait to shampoo my hair tonight. thank you, ramos family!