Insane Blessings, Part 2:

Continued from Insane Blessings, Part 1:

Now in the full knowledge that my husband would indeed have a position at KU for the fall, we began to look toward what that meant for us financially next year.  There are some things we really want to do - like pay off my car and put our son in part-time daycare - but since we are paycheck to paycheck people with a very strict budget, we weren't sure how we were going to do this.  We both believe our son needs to be in regular contact with kids his age (and that our awesome moms could use a little break), but daycare is expensive!  We knew the GTA came with a stipend, but we weren't sure what to expect.  We were hoping it would be enough to cover the cost of daycare.

The morning after we found out about the GTA position, my husband received an email requesting that he go to campus to sign his contract.  He set up an appointment the following day and almost the second he was out the door of the office, I got a phone call.  Return to the jumping up and down version of my husband I described in the last post.  As it turns out, the stipend was nearly five times what we were hoping for.  He was giddy.  I was giddy.  We prayed together as soon as he got home, thanking God for this blessing and overwhelmed at His providence.  You can imagine what this meant for us!

But it wasn't over yet.

Later that same afternoon, my husband received ANOTHER email - this one from the Dean of Graduate Studies - thanking him for accepting the GTA and guaranteeing him a significant scholarship for both the fall and spring in addition to his free schooling and stipend.

WHAT?

I was seriously ready for Publisher's Clearing House to knock on our door.  This seemed like such an impossible blessing - we couldn't believe it.  Extra money?

I don't want to portray the idea that we have been destitute, or even that we don't have things we want due to our current income.  We do, and God has blessed us immeasurably with the ability to pay our bills, buy necessities, and keep our debt low.  We have been able to live fairly comfortably for the last four years even on a one to one-and-a-quarter income level.  But there are many things we would like to be doing - getting our cars paid off, saving for our son's college, saving for retirement - in short, things that are financially smart, that we have been unable to do in our present circumstance.  In the next few days, we are planning to revisit our budget with this new information in mind and begin possibly meeting some of our financial goals and setting some new ones.

We are so grateful to God for this new development and are trusting Him for strength in the coming year.  It's going to be a tough year for my husband - his toughest yet, in fact.  Thinking about all this and the fact that we are adding another family member makes my blood pressure rise, but I am confident this is the right thing and that we can make it through.  It's just one year, after all!