God is SOOO Good!

So even though I woke up this morning to being vomited on--LOTS--at 4:30 and promptly had to take a shower to get the muck off while also de-mucking a barfy baby...and even though my eldest daughter is going to wake my happy butt up again way too early tomorrow, (today? in a couple hours? UGH)...I'm still completely side-swiped by this latest Blessing and I have to write about it. I know sometimes it seems like I'm a cynical jerk who doesn't appreciate a darned thing, but I'm not. I hope you all know I do that on purpose for humor's sake. I try to interject pearls of appreciation here and there; hopefully it's readable.

So Saturday Allan was on the phone with his friend in Russia. We came in the house after GraceAnne's party and I had checked the mail. For anyone who doesn't know--I am OBSESSED with mail. I always have been. When I was a kid I'd get mad if mom checked the mail before I got home from school and could do it. I love to see mail stuffed in the box and I have been known to sign up for free samples and junk mail just to see how stuffed I can get it on a daily basis. Nah--I don't care there's bills in there. We can pay the bills, so they don't scare me. Anyway, I checked the mail and it was a totally sucky day. Who can be signing up for crap with a baby on their lap all the time?? We got a flier, some credit card offer--which I won't even open, I just shred them--and a little note about the dog we got rid of a couple weeks ago. Then I saw a little envelope. I looked at it and I knew it was a check because it was from the Department of Treasury and I could see through the window that it was colorful. Have you ever gotten a treasury check? Then you know what I'm talking about. I figured "hey, it's a piddly 30 bux because Violet was born and added to Allan's pension or something equally mundane, but it will take us out to eat!" So I opened it.

Oh.
My.
God.

I said, "ALLAN!"
He waved me off as he was still on the phone to Russia.
"ALLAN, what..."
*waving me off, irritated that I have the manners of our 3-year-old*
"ALLAN, WHAT IS THIS?" *shoving the check into his hand*
his jaw DROPS to the floor and he says to his friend, "my wife just handed me a check for enough to pay our 2nd mortgage off."

Okay, that's not EXACTLY what he said, but I'm not going to post the amount here. Let's just say it wasn't enough to take a pleasure cruise for a month in the Mediterranean, but it was enough to pay off the 2nd mortgage, which we've been working on for a while now.

So apparently, after several years and our 3rd appeal, Social Security decided Allan is disabled enough (can I interject a "no shit, sherlock" here? I mean, how lost does a leg have to be??) to qualify for payment. Of course they back pay to the date of application, so we got a big fat check and I'm SO happy to be responsible about it! Most of the time we get a check and I'm so sad we can't have any fun with it. Well let's just say Allan mentioned something about a boat, (used of course), and I said and really *meant* "but when we came back from a day of boating we'd STILL have a 2nd mortgage payment!" He laughed and agreed.

This is totally crazy for another reason, too...this kicks us into the 4th, 5th and 6th baby steps. **Dave Ramsey is a wonderful financial man who changed our lives. I highly suggest you ALL check him out!** For those not currently in the know--this means that we are supposed to start investing for retirement, saving for college for the kids and paying off the 1st mortgage. Okay, that's cool, but how were we supposed to do all that? We can afford to invest once the 2nd mortgage is gone, but we can't afford to save for college and really get serious about paying off the house. The fact of the matter is we got here by the Grace of God and just pure dumb luck and for the meager amount of money we make per year, we should not be sitting where we are. The numbers just don't add up. So today, as I was talking to our Veteran's Rep, (this woman is an ANGEL and everyone should donate money to the Army's Wounded Warrior project. These people are amazing!), she tells me that the kids will be getting checks from S.S. too! They'll get about $200/mo each! That means they're saving for their own college! It's just enough plus a little extra to fully fund their ESA accounts every year. They'll only get this until Allan gets a job, but when he's employed we'll be able to afford to fund them ourselves!

I'm totally overwhelmed right now and completely thrilled. Our Blessings have been too numerous to count, seriously. God has always provided MORE than we've needed throughout our relationship and I'm so happy I want to shout it from the mountaintops. It's not just about money, either...the girls, our home, our relationship...it's all been so well Blessed. I don't know how anyone can think stuff like this is coincidence. I'm sad that I did once, but at the same time glad I did because now I can appreciate it all for what it really is--ABSOLUTELY DIVINE!