the oddest ways....

God works in such wonderful ways doesn't He?!
Most of you know that finances have been scary for us this year, as in facing losing everything every month since about September. Yet, month after month after month God comes through for us and we have yet to lose anything except some selfish pride!
Christmas was looking scary, as we have 2 who still believe in the jolly ol' elf and we didn't have the moola to put out even for gifts from him and both of our families helped us in ways this year that we were not expecting them to be able to help much gift-wise. Well, as always, we should live by the verse Phillipians 4:6 " Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." because it is true that if we only ask, He is ALWAYS (yes ALWAYS) faithful to answer....sometimes the answer is "yes, of course" sometimes it is "no way" and sometimes it is "wait, I have something better for you if you are patient".....
Anyway, we ended up being able to get each of the kids gifts from each other (from us), our parents on both sides got them every single thing on their lists except a Wii (like they really need that anyway!), and mike and I got some very nice things even though we asked for nothing and expected nothing...AND there were 3 gifts for each young'un from Santa, one for each from their personal elves Jingle, Tingle, and Tiny Kringle (they each got long johns to wear under their clothes when they go sledding...oh yeah they got 4 gifts b/c Santa left each of the boys a sled too) all of this under our tree when we got home Christmas Day!!!
Anyway, all of this is leading up to something. How God works in mysterious/odd ways....
anyway, most of the gifts we bought were gotten on Ebay. At first I felt horrible thinking about giving my babies stuff that had been previously used or owned but OH MY, we got some GREAT gifts for a little bit of nothing (you have to be willing to pick a low price and refuse to go above it and really watch the shipping/handling costs)!!! During this time I got used to just browsing ebay.
Well today I was browsing again and thinking "if i see something i really want, i can use some of the money I got for Christmas and get something just for me".....
lo and behold I came across what I thought were raggedy ann and andy dolls that were SO cute. Growing up I always had raggedy ann and andy dolls b/c my Mamaw used to make them (I will have to tell you the story of the year she sold them to get my birthday supper)....I have priced them at different places/thrift shops/boutiques to get for Tink so that she can have some of the things i loved so much as a child (ok ok yeah it has as much to do with me wanting to relive my childhood as it has to do with wanting her to have a raggedy ann). Anyway, back on track....
well i clicked on it b/c it had a raggedy ann AND an andy!....well it wasn't the actual dolls, it was an e-pattern. Then it hit me, if i buy the pattern I can MAKE them for tink like Mamaw made them for me!!!! The post was for 6.50 for the patterns for both. I bought them.
A few minutes later I got a reply from the seller with the patterns enclosed, and in her siggy it gave the link for her store and her blog.....well i visited the store (she had some ADORABLE freebie patterns on there) and thought "wow that is a great place...." then at the bottom of the page it had something that caught me off guard, she gave ALL the credit to Jesus Christ!!!!!!
sooooooooooooooooo I thought "hm that was a great surprise, knowing I bought from a fellow believer, why not visit her blog".....this is where I say that God works in odd ways. On this blog I found entries and sideblogs of a kindred spirit!!! A fun lovin', shoe hatin', animal adorin', God fearin', Christ praisin', family girl from the south!!!!! I am already hooked and her blog has already blessed me today more than she could probably know! I will be blogging soon about some of my memories growing up in tennessee thanks to her and i will work on some sort of freebie for all y'all over the next couple days :).....anyway here is her blog addy.... http://itsaboutannie.blogspot.com/ , thanks De for brightening my day!