Happy (early) Birthday to Me!

The past year or so has been...to be frank, very difficult financially. Travis works in the housing market, and with high gas prices and foreclosures, it was not the best of times. OUR mortgage skyrocketed due to not having a fixed interest rate (after 3 years), and by the grace of God, we were able to maintain what we had, but it was NOT fun. Thank God, thank God, thank GOD, just two weeks ago we were able to refinance with a FIXED rate. This has made our life quite surreal at this point. (this is possibly the most personal blog I've ever written, by the way.) My parents were gracious enough to help us get out of the mess we were in, and I cannot thank you both enough. That is exactly how I want to be with my children and anyone that needs it!

Also, even though she doesn't read this blog, Mary (chrissie's mom), though she doesn't do mortgages full time anymore, took it upon herself to get us the best rate she possibly could while making basically nothing in the process. Many times, she'd get to what looked like the end of a loan, and then go back to the beginning because it wouldn't have been best for us or it just didn't work. She never said, "Sorry, I can't help you."

And my husband, who had to live with me throughout the process. I stayed on him because there is SO much involved with buying, or in our case RE-buying, a home. And in the midst of a hectic work schedule, it was hard. He did it. He RE-did it. And did it again until we finally closed. Thank you, Travis. Thank you for your hard work for our family and allowing me to stay home with Sage.

Fast forward to now. Ever since I bought my Equinox, I have always wanted a bigger car. For me, the bigger the car, the better. I wanted to sit as high off the ground as I possibly could, but financially speaking, the Escalade just wasn't in my future. Frankly, neither was the Yukon, which was closest to my heart (outside of a Mercedes, of course). Since we closed, Travis took it upon HIMSELF to look for a Yukon this week, and lo and behold, THIS week that is what we have. It's a 2005 (same year as my equinox) fully loaded Yukon. This car has things in it that I didn't even know existed in cars.

When they brought it home, I was overwhelmed. It was the weirdest feeling. I cried actually and not for the car. The car is nice, don't get me wrong. It's great, but I thought about where we came from. I remember when we moved from a little townhouse into THIS house when we didn't know how we would pay the first payment, or the second, or the third.... ha. But it happened. EVERY time. I remember when I was pregnant, still in school, and I couldn't buy myself maternity clothes. We really had nothing, but we were happy. I remember getting up out of a dead sleep at night going, "What are we going to do?!" And Travis would say, "God always comes through for us. He takes care of us, not our job, not anything or anyone else." And it happened EVERY time. It still does, and it always will.

I read a verse the other day that stuck with me. 2Corinthians 6:1-3 "As fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For He says, 'In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation, I helped you.' I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation." I never want to receive His grace in vain. Ever. I am and always will be amazed and thankful at all that He has done for us in every area of our lives.