Thanksgiving came early….

I feel especially out of sorts lately, things have been whizzing by me at lightning speed… the days have passed – turning into weeks and now a month has passed… Fall is upon us, cooler days – which I love, and life is progressing.  But I’m stopping to post some much needed praises to God. I pray this blesses you as much as it did me……

September was a wonderful month, we had so much fun doing things with our Church and also with the family.  A highlight of the month came on the 18th when we had the pleasure of attending an Atlanta Braves baseball game.  Now, before some of you come unglued, let me state “for the record” we are NOT Atlanta Braves fans…. never have been, however someone gave us free tickets to see them play the Phillies (and Tony is a Phillies fan) so off we went.  Let me tell you these weren’t just any tickets, not the nosebleed section we’re used to sitting in… we were told by a kind usher to go down to such and such a number and go up in the elevator– alrighty then… we exit off the elevator and see these glass doors with a kind lady with a huge smile opening them….and WHOOSH we feel air conditioning… wait, we are at a ball park right?? Looking down towards our feet, we see carpeting… hhhmmmm, I glance around and see leather arm chairs and where a “snack” area is it is refered to as a refreshment center or something like that….. I’m a tad overwhelmed and feeling extreemly undressed…  we are shown to our seats – next to the press box…and let me tell you, we’ve NEVER sat in seats like these…WOW… it was amazing.  An experience unlike any we’ve been privileged to have.  We enjoyed the game, Phillies won and the kids were awe struck by it all.   On the way home, they fell asleep (as you can see in the picture below, Josh was very comfy using his sister as a pillow)

That story reminds me that God is so good to us… this month, he’s shown us how he’s taking care of our needs and some of our wants (some we didn’t even KNOW we wanted). 

Another blessing in disguise came as I was headed out to a Bridal shower at our church, I had the cake in hand, loaded up the car and went to crank it and NOTHING…. hmmmm tried again…. NADA… okay… dead battery… GREAT.. I’m in charge of the shower, doing the devotion and i have the cake, i KINDA need to be there.  So, I rush into the house and send Josh off to the neighbors to see if someone can come and jump the car.  NO ONE IS HOME… Tony starts going through his phone to see who lives close by. I call a few friends of mine and NO ONE IS HOME….I’m starting to see a pattern here… finally we get in touch with Abbies soft ball coach and he comes to our rescue. In the meantime – I go to check the mail….in the mailbox is a envelope from my mom in law and inside it is a check…enough to cover the battery and then some — I ALMOST CAME UNGLUED.. WOW God is so good…. SO elated – Off I go to Wal-Mart to get a new battery. I get there and am greeted by a very flustered young man that tells me there is an hour and a half wait… well, I don’t have an hour and a half to wait, as I have this cake and shower awaiting, but —DEEP BREATH– Okay, I tell him, I just need to get the cake out of the car… this is overheard by one of the guys that does the actual WORK there.  He says to the flustered one – hey, no problem, let me get her out of here and to her shower.  He rang up the battery and in less than 10 mins. I was set to go… THANK YOU LEE – He was my hero of the hour.  God had this all set up, I made it to the shower in time to set up, decorate and BREATH a prayer of thanksgiving, he had Lee there to get my battery changed quickly and had my mom in law do something unusual which saved our day by paying for the battery… Don’t tell me there isn’t a God in heaven that loves us.

So, you think that’s all??????????????????  NOPE  — remember the trumpet post from a few weeks ago?  We almost bought one from a dear lady in another city that was selling hers.  It was used, but in decent shape, we only needed to fix a valve. Well, we decided not to go that route, and that same day, less than 2 hours later, I found one on EBAY – for less than what she was asking. This one was brand new, had a 5 year warranty and only 1 hour to go…. anticipation…  This all happened on a Friday – my busiest day at work, but i was determined to keep my eyes on it.  SO with less than 3 mins. to go. I was flipping between my defendants and EBAY…. finally 10 secs and someone out bid me.  I waited and with 2 seconds left, I upped the bid to win the trumpet —-SUCCESS!!!  It is a stunning instrument, black with brass – a perfect starter instrument for Josh.  (thanks to my mom-in-law – she helped out to get this for him…..) So when it came in, he has NO IDEA what we’re up to, I had simply told him we would have a mouth piece for him to take to school in  a few weeks.  He’s sitting on the couch the day it arrived and I told Tony to make him close his eyes… he does.  I set it next to him and tell him to look.  He starts shouting – NO WAY -NO WAY!!!  He opens in up and the BIGGEST grin I think I’ve ever seen on his face appears as he gently picks up his new instrument…. He looks it over, impressed by the black color, having never seen anything but all brass, lays it back in its case and comes over and throws his arms around us to thank us….
That night as we’re saying good night, he can’t stop saying thank you… Now that makes all the searching and bidding and whatever other emotions are there worth it.

I was talking to a dear friend of mine, he’s a youth pastor in Florida – he shared with me that his youngest daughter got saved just a few weeks ago…. Another friend of mine – her son received Christ 2 weeks ago.  A member of our church was praising God for how he’s working in her life.  Last Saturday we had 37 people in attendence in Spanish Church… God is working and moving, he’s not done with us.. and sometimes it’s nice to have Thanksgiving a little early….. I can’t wait to see what this month brings…..

God has blesses us in so many ways…. We just can’t say thank you enough.