"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28
And
"'Test me in this,' says the LORD Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates.'" Malachi 3:10
^^That last one, paired with the first one makes a joke :) Maybe you won't get it until the end. Whatever. Read on.
We have had an eventful month.
In early March, Rodney underwent a vasectomy. We don't have insurance on him. But thanks to Dave Ramsey, we had the money saved up, granting us the ability to pay with cold hard cash. And so a cool, well-spent $1,500 strutted out the door. A week and a half later, he encountered severe side pain that sent him limping to our local Urgent Care. They proceeded with a standard CT scan, blood test, and urine analysis. The negative results left the confounded doctor with nothing but the option of diagnosing the pain as a "complication" of the vasectomy and sending him home with pain killers and orders to rest for a day.
Last week jump-started with our reception of the medical statement. Rodney's clean bill of health came to a stunning total of $2,100. It was shocking, but we began to devise ways to pull money together to get it paid.
A few days later we left for Eau Claire. We were to attend a funeral for a 16-year-old. Oh my heart :( Anyway, our Jeep blew its engine on the trip up. Thankfully, my brother-in-law is a phenomenal mechanic and is working toward finding and rebuilding a new engine to replace that bad boy. We don't know yet what the cost will be of that job. I'm going to go ahead and estimate $2,000 for that.
Also thanks to Dave Ramsey, we use cash for everything. So at the beginning of the month, we take out cash for well, everything: groceries, toiletries, fuel, birthdays, weddings, softener salt, diapers, etc. We withdraw the lump sum and then distribute it into our various "envelopes." It's an AMAZING system (that's another blog post for another day), and I recommend it to everyone to help avoid overspending.
However.
That means there's a large sum of money in one place until you're home from the bank. And if someone or other (maybe the husband? We'll just say "maybe") forgets to bring it in, it stays in the car. Where it can be taken. $800 gone.
My wonderful, aforementioned brother-in-law loaned us one of his Jeeps (yeah, we're a Jeepy kind of crew) while he worked on ours. During our use of it, we managed to break the driver's seat from its base.
Saturday, I spent 5 hours in Urgent Care with my one-year-old baby girl. She was the lucky winner of 2 chest x-rays, 2 throat x-rays, a nebulizer treatment, three different oxygen-level tests, a swab for strep throat, a swab for whooping cough, some kind of super-duper anti-inflammatory shot to open her airways, a dose of Tylenol, some saltine crackers, and apple juice (that last part wasn't so bad). She's okay now, for the record, praise God! Thanks again everyone for praying for our little Ez.
Yesterday, our garage door opener broke. Maybe $200?
Today, my daughter opened a birthday card from her generous aunt & uncle with $20 cash in it. That too has vanished. The cash-- not the card :)
$1500 Surgery
$2100 "Complication"
$2000 Engine
$ 800 Cash
$ 200 Garage Door Thinger
$ 20 Poor victim of unlucky parents
______________________________
$6,620 + broken Jeep chair and potential cost of Urgent Care visit (She's insured. Yay God!) accrued in ONE month.
A lot of people have asked me how I'm holding up. I have actually been doing fine-- as if nothing is even happening. Which very closely resembles textbook denial. Hmmm. . . :) But instead of labeling my peace with a psychological term, I'm choosing to trust that God is answering the prayers of my friends and family to sustain me.
Today, I was talking these circumstances over with someone close. It occurred to me that though these are difficult things, they have proved to shine light on God's goodness. It reminds me of lyrics in this song. Here are a few things that have surfaced and cannot be overlooked:
- We don't have grocery money for the next week and a half, but we have family who volunteered to feed us for a few of the nights. I also discovered enough food in our cupboards to make up for the rest of the meals we can't go out and buy.
- I have a brother-in-law skilled enough (and willing!) to completely fix our vehicle.
- I have family generous enough to pinch their schedule and loan us their second vehicle.
- I have family close by and willing to take my oldest kids in the event we would need to stay in the hospital a few days with the baby.
- We have friends who are constantly asking (nearly begging) to help out in SOME way.
- We have a church family and incredible friends who readily united in prayer over our little sick girl.
- When our Jeep died, no one was hurt. It wasn't raining (or snowing!), and we had just finished a stop at McDonald's-- filling our tummies and emptying our bladders.
- Thanks to Dave Ramsey (I should really get paid for all this advertising), we have a $1000 emergency fund, and money saved up for all kinds of other upcoming things. And while we don't WANT to liquidate the dough we've saved for our trip to Puerto Rico (for instance), the simple undeniable fact is that we do have that money. The content of those envelopes is certainly not enough to cover everything, but we haven't lived "paycheck to paycheck" for years. If our paychecks were the ONLY money we had to scrape together. . . Ooo-whee we'd be in a a heap of trouble.
- Rodney and I completely agree about God :) We know that He is trustworthy, and that He will provide. There's no arguing about plans or about money, even.
- This trouble has presented the opportunity to come together and pray as a whole family, sans baby.
- Lastly is something I try to never take for granted. But when you're going to a funeral for a child, you cannot overlook the absolute blessing of having all of your own kids alive. It makes everything else-- the whole gamut-- completely, utterly, and wholly unimportant.
This is for sure the roughest patch we've been through since we started our own company over 4 years ago. Instead of getting us down and burying us in defeat and worry, it has instead served to demonstrate just how richly we are blessed.
