Blessings

We've had a lot of unexpected expenses lately.  They aren't coming at a good time (is it ever a good time to have unexpected expenses?!) since we have to pay for a labor and delivery (not cheap at all, even with decent insurance) and we have less income due to Josh's 3 week unpaid leave and my 6 week unpaid leave.

First we had to pay $1200 for Josh's treatments for his headaches (I would pay thousands and thousands of dollars for Josh to fix his headaches so this is money well spent... especially if it works).  Then my Rav4 needed work (new tires and brakes/roters), which cost $1000.  Then Josh had to have a root canal, a week after Max was born, which cost $460.  Then we discovered that our hot water heater was leaking.  After some research, Josh learned that a water heater must be replaced once it starts leaking and should be replaced asap as it could easily cause a flood.  After already enduring 3 basement floods in three years, we knew we wanted to avoid that!!  So last Sunday Josh went to Sears to buy a new water heater.  While there, he called Brad (my mom's significant other) to get his advice on the type of heater to get.  Brad told Josh that just two days prior, he had been given a brand new water heater from a customer that owed him for some work that Brad had done.  Brad wanted to bless us by giving us this water heater, at no charge, even though he could have easily sold it on Craigslist for $400+. 

Wow. What a 'coincidence'.  What a blessing indeed.  Josh picked it up a couple days later from this gentleman's house in Minneapolis and last night our brother-in-law, Sean, kindly helped us install the heater.  Josh had also bought about $120 worth of supplies for the installation at Home Depot, which we can return almost all of because Sean had spare parts for us to use.  So we saved on the heater, the parts, and the installation, because of Sean's help.  Thank you, Jesus, for taking care of us! And thank you Brad for being His hands and feet!