Resting in Romans 8:28

I am often ashamed at how quickly I forget the kindness of God, or am tempted to grumble at the smallest of financial flurries(like new tires, or the Target pharmacy). It's easy to walk past many a miracle in the everyday hustle and bustle, to waver in the waves and to dismiss the blessings of a new week with "a case of the Mondays."

This post is long overdue and written with thanks after thanks, as both a reminder to myself and a testament to the kindness of our savior. God has been unfailingly faithful and all sufficient to our family in the past few months, and I'd like to share our great, big answered prayer:

After months of anxious anticipation over Evan's hospital bill, God made a way for us-a surprise, abundantly supplied, covered in FULL kind of way.

Praise upon Praise!!!!

A little background-Having great insurance but no maternity coverage, Chris and I were stretched a bit thin over the past year paying out of pocket for prenatal care and all of those fun tests, ect. that go along with a pregnancy. But with a bit of creative budgeting and God's never failing provision, were able to manage our "second mortgage," as we lovingly called it, with little to no problem. That is..until the news of the hospital bill hit us like a bomb.

Here we were getting ready to meet our precious little guy and I'll admit my excitement was coupled greatly with stress and anxiety over the final bill. As much as I trusted that everything would work out, I'd be fibbing if I said I wasn't a teency bit worried about the financial aspect of labor and delivery(okay, maybe a tad more then a teency). And when our all natural, uncomplicated, in and out birth plan turned into a 36 hour induced labor and ended in a C-section....well you can only imagine what our hospital bill turned into. Let's just say that the bottom line started with a 2 and contained one more digit then we had planned on, which is to say that it was quite a large amount. And the Lord provided for every penny! We still have some odds and ends to take care of on our on-but they are small and manageable in comparison to the lion of the hospital's fee. We are relieved, weightless, humbled, overjoyed, grateful.

Our paster Justin Childers wrote this reflection on God's kindness while we were studying the book of Ruth a while back, that "None of us deserve God’s kindness. We should respond with humble astonishment when God shows favor to sinners like us. His grace is only possible because our Redeemer was willing to die for our sins. " Humble astonishment is the perfect word for my reaction upon opening this special letter from the mail, and I am ever thankful for the kindness of God, expressed in the love of Christ, and extended to silly old me.

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His steadfast love endures forever." Psalm 107:1