God is so faithful and generous!

I think as Christians we should always be honest, even about our shortcomings. Sometimes it's nicer for us to hide the things we do wrong, and flaunt our good things. I think all that does it make other people, and other Christians feel inadequate when they fail at something. So I'm going to be honest here... once Blakely was born, we didn't have a whole lot of extra spending money. I didn't have disability insurance, and I spent many hours stressing and even crying (I was pregnant! Give me a break!) over not having enough. I added it all up, I added it up again, and on the paper, we didn't have enough! Josh is so faithful. I've said it before, but it's true. He has great faith in God our provider. After she was born we actually had money in savings! God is so good. However... daycare is expensive as well as diapers, food, formula, etc. Here's the honesty part that I don't really want to share.... we kind of stopped tithing there for a little bit. It just seemed like every pay check went so quickly, there wasn't much left over. Well, about a month ago, Josh said that he was feeling convicted about it, and we needed to tithe again, whether we thought we had the money or not. He is such a good leader for our family. I'm so greedy, and I'm glad he isn't. I agreed, wishing we had more, but decided to be grateful we had enough. We planned out a budget that included tithing. And are you ready for that moment when God says, "Hey... I will always take care of you" ???

I kid you not, within the same week, I realized that my paychecks from then on were going to be several hundred dollars more every two weeks. Like, almost enough to cover daycare! You see, when I went on maternity leave, since I didn't have disability, they had to prorate my checks for the number of days I was actually there. Which was less of course than a normal year. Well, the fiscal year starts over now, so no more prorated checks, which means more moola! It was too perfect. I knew God was saying to me, "Be faithful to me and I'll be faithful to you". I so appreciate those moments when he reveals himself in my life like this. He always has and always will take care of us (and YOU!)

On another note, Blakely's party is this weekend! She is almost one! Our friends and family are so spread out that it will be a small party, very small. I will be sure to post pictures though. I'm so blessed to be her mommy. Josh and I went on a date last night, and as we were headed back home, I told him that while I did love our life before of going out whenever we wanted, regardless of the time of day, I wouldn't trade our family time for the world. She really is the apple of our eyes! Love love love her! More to come on our almost one year old very soon!