Bargain Buys (or Blessings)

God is always so good to us, often in ways that we can't understand or don't expect. Take these three examples of God's goodness in unexpected, often small, ways:


Winter boots for Shannon.

A few weeks ago I stopped into the Salvation Army to see if they had any good, nice baby clothes. They didn't. But what they did have were brand new, tags-still-on-them, winter boots, guaranteed for up to -10 Fahrenheit, in what I thought was Shannon's size, for $20. So I got Shannon to go and try on a pair, they fit just perfectly, and so we bought them. Many places it's not necessary to have winter boots, and he probably would have survived 3 months of winter in Alaska without a pair, but they sure will be nice and keep his feet dry and warm while he shovels snow this winter, or goes out to the freezer to get meat/fish/bread/whatever we need from it. Plus, they fit me too, so I can wear them if I need to go outside for something!


A nearly-new carseat, given to us by friends.

My friends Joe and Emily had a baby boy back in May. They had bought him this carseat only to find out after he was born that he hated it. He would scream his head off the entire car ride anytime they took him anywhere. So they bought him a new one (so he could sit up more) after suffering his screams for 6 or 8 weeks, and saved this one to give to us! Even if Lane hates this carseat as much as Joe and Emily's boy did, we won't be using it that much in the 6ish weeks that we're here after she's born, and we could buy one that attaches to a stroller once we're back in the Lower 48. We didn't want to do that here, because there's no need for a stroller in Kenai in January and February, and there was no point in lugging it back down South. Now we don't have to even think about what's the best thing to do, because we have a carseat no matter what!


39 ounces of coffee for $1.49.

Yesterday my mom and I went to the store to stock up on carrots (between the two of us we've bought about 40 pounds of carrots: they were on sale for $1.29/2 pounds and good, and we can keep them under the house for use all winter). While picking up a few other random items and walking by the "reduced cart," I spied this can of coffee. Medium roast, seal unbroken, but marked down to $1.49 because of the large dent in the side. A can of store-brand coffee up here runs at least 6 or 7 dollars, and for a brand that anyone's actually heard of it's more like 10 or 11 dollars. With 3 1/2 coffee drinkers (I'm the 1/2...my doctor told me I could have 1 cup a day if I wanted to, but I only do a few days a week) in the house, we go through coffee quite quickly. It just goes to show that God cares about us, even in the small stuff.

I could go on and on about the many ways that we have been blessed (a king-size bed for me and Shannon that my mom found for $15, being eligible for WIC and the help that has been with the grocery budget, Shannon's being hired even though they knew he'd only be there until February, a friend letting us borrow a car while we got the flat tires on another fixed...), but there's just not room. I think it is sufficient to say that God is good all the time; all the time, God is good!