Free Food and Fellowship

Sometimes the universe seems a dark, lonely, uncaring place. Sometimes I rail at God and ask Him if He hates me. I'm pleased to announce that right now is not one of those times. Since I've started writing this blog, I've had a lot fewer of those moments and in the last couple of days/weeks, I have definitely noticed how cared for by God I am.

Part of this realization has come from several conversations I have had about growing up poor. My family was under the poverty line for most of my childhood, yet strangely I haven't been negatively effected by this. We always always always had enough. Not that we necessarily knew where it was going to come from until whatever it was that we needed arrived, but we always had enough. I didn't realize until recently that not everybody had that experience. As a newly married couple, our finances were pretty grim but once again we always had enough. Though these experiences, especially the early years of my marriage, my faith has grown tremendously. Now I'm realizing how much God keeps His promises to His children when they are faithful. It's so encouraging.

Last night we had fast food for dinner. Our budget allows for it, and I was just having one of those days. When Steve unpacked our dinner, he realized that the order had been messed up. But when he checked the receipt, he realized that the restaurant had made an even bigger mistake. Steve had paid $0.24 for our meal! He called the restaurant to report the error and they decided just to swallow it. Can you believe it? A meal for 5 people for less than a quarter! How cool is that? Even better, this is the second time in two weeks that we've gotten meals for free. Two weeks ago, our pizza was 7 minutes late so it was free. I have no clue as to why this is happening or if it will keep happening, but I feel so very very blessed. :)

Tonight my counsellor forgot about our appointment, so I ended up able to go process milkbags again this week. Aris has been sick all week, so I have been to the school once. This feels so weird. Although I'm enjoying having her home and really seeing how much she has needed this mommy time, I'm missing my friends. There are several women that I connect with regularly at the school, some of whom are becoming quite important to me. When I don't see them, I really feel that void. Tonight definitely helped make up for that. Just being with other women was lovely. I definitely needed that companionship. :)

And now for your regularly scheduled Olympic update: Canada won another gold tonight, this one in women's long track speedskating. There was also a spectacular fall that made me quite content that Steve no longer speed skates. In men's hockey, Team Canada won against the Swiss although it was quite close. Go Canada! :)