It happened to us!

You know how you hear stories of how God provided for people in miraculous ways? The stories are cool, often dramatic, and sometimes they give you the goosebumps. And you think "That's great! God is good. But that sort of thing will never, ever happen to me."

"Oh ye of little faith...watch me work my miracle in your life." - Love, God.

So, the Monday after we brought Jenna home, Jared's car died. Yes, the purple Malibu (it's aubergine - sounds classier, but now that it's dead, I can call it purple). Jared knows this, but I haven't been the biggest fan of that car. So, I'm not the least surprised that it died when it did. We had invested a lot of money into its plethora of mechanical problems, to the point where I'm sure we could have bought another used car. Still, we had hoped that it would serve its transportational purposes for a little while longer. But that was not to be. After taking it in to the shop and told that it would cost us over $3,000 to fix it, we decided it wasn't worth it, and said our final goodbye. It now sits somewhere in the parking lot at Willow, its fate in the hands of the people in the Cars Ministry (well, at least it'll help us out with our taxes!).

Now that we were down to one car, we were a little anxious, but not too much. We figured that since I'll be home-bound for 6 weeks to recover from my c-section, Jared could use my Toyota. We had time to figure out what to do. So, it wasn't too inconvenient. Still, there was a nagging thought in our minds "what are we going to do?". That Monday night, we both felt an impression on our hearts that we should pray about this - not just pray about the situation, but to pray boldly and specifically. Jared suggested that we commit to praying for a whole month, and just allow God to work and see how He will provide for us. I don't think we've ever done this before. But that night before bed, we prayed specifically that God would provide us with a minivan, because, logically, that would be the next type of vehicle for our family. We prayed the same kind of prayer again the next day.

Wednesday morning, Jared took my mom to the airport - she was leaving for home after being with us for 4 weeks. It was an emotional morning for me as I said my goodbye to her. Jared came home a few hours later, and I was still pretty teary-eyed. When he saw me, he handed me his cell phone and said that I had to listen to a voicemail that he had received. I didn't want to, I was just not in the mood, but he was adamant. He had received this message while he was at the airport: it was a lady from a car dealership in Algonquin. She said that this was not a joke, but someone had anonymously purchased a car for us, and all we had to do is come in to sign some papers, and we could drive the car home. Everything had been paid for - taxes, title, etc. At this point, my mouth dropped, and I started bawling! I went from sadness to overwhelming joy and astonishment! What an emotional rollercoaster, and I was an emotional wreck! Both Jared and I couldn't believe it. How could this be? God had answered our prayers, and it was only 2 days after we decided to pray boldly for Him to provide for us. Needless to say, we were both quite speechless for a while. I kept thinking "No way, no way. Is this for real??" Jared called the lady back, and it became a reality. Someone had bought us a car!! WOW!! God heard our prayers, and provided for us! How cool is that!?!? We feel so blessed and are so thankful to God and to whoever it is that did this incredibly generous act of kindness. I will hold on to this experience for a long, long time! What a lesson for me to learn - that nothing is impossible with God. I just need to get better at trusting Him and have faith that He will provide for us. This car will be a tangible reminder of what God has done!

He didn't give us the minivan that we prayed for, but He did bless us with a 99 Land Rover (I didn't even know what a Land Rover was until now).

So, does God listen to our prayers? Does He still work miracles? Does He love us that much to lavish us with gifts, not because we deserve it (because we don't), but because He wants to?

HECK, YEAH!!

May our God story be an encouragement to you. So, pray boldly!