God provides. ALWAYS.

First of all, I want to say that I totally do not think money is everything and it certainly doesn't determine one's happiness. While I may not have the highest paying job in America, I love what I do and I'm beyond thankful to have a job.

With that being said, let me just say that as teachers, we get paid once a month--the very last work day of the month. It's challenging, but I'm able to make it from pay check to pay check (even if it's by the skin on my teeth!). Since we got out of school May 24th-ish, that was the last day I received a paycheck, and there's not another paycheck coming my way until Wednesday. Do the math--that's nearly 6 weeks, people. Needless to say, this month has been a financial struggle. I hate that money can cause such stress among people, but it does, and I've been stressed. Since it's the summer, I've traveled more, therefore obviously spending more money on gas. And there have been lots of other unplanned expenses (ex....forking over $100 for a stupid new car battery! UGH!).

As the end of the month is finally approaching, I started to realize that some of the things I had originally planned (going to visit Claire next week) were just not going to happen. I barely have enough money in my account to pay for gas to Birmingham, muchless do anything fun once I'm there! I haven't visited Claire in forever and this is something we've planned for weeks! I was not looking forward to calling her to tell her I couldn't make it.

I spent this week in Gulfport with my sister Heather (luckily, I spent a very little amount of money while I was there!), and I had my friend Heather pick up my mail for me while I was away. She called one day to tell me that I'd gotten something in the mail that looked suspiciously like a tax return check. I didn't get too excited, as I told her that I owed money in taxes this year so I wasn't expecting any kind of return. She convinced me that it was a check and I asked her to open it (thinking to myself how fantastic it would be to even get a $40 surprise check--just enough to tie me over til payday!). She opened it and excitedly informed me that the check was a tax return to me for $400!!! I honestly had to see it to believe it, but was ecstatic to realize that it was legit! There was a letter attached saying that my taxes were reviewed and the tax people (??) noticed that I was eligible for some sort of claim (I really didn't care about the reasoning for the money!).

This couldn't have come at a better time.

Again, money is not everything in life. I know this. But this was proof to me that God is watching over and taking care of me!

I'm now looking forward to my trip to Bham!!!

I LOVE the tax people.