We've had an interesting couple of weeks in our little household. We've been debating for a while whether or not to move to a smaller 2Br apartment that would cut our rent and utility expenses a lot. It's been a hard decision to make, in some ways both Carl and I have grown attached to the house we rent right now. We brought our first baby home in this little place but as we continued to go over and over our budget trying to see if there were other places we could save money in we came to the conclusion that moving would be the best for us to do so that we could have a successful budget and not a failing one. Talk about needing to be humble. I don't think any growing family wants to go from more to less space wise but we believe that God won't have us here forever and we really do want to be faithful with what we have been given.
So we're going to move to a smaller place but will still be enough for our small family which means that I need to start packing. However, even with moving comes moving expenses such as application fee, deposit and first months rent. On top of those soon to be expenses we also have all of Carl's medical bills that still need to be paid. Insurance didn't cover anything significant but they were able to give us a significant discount so instead of a 2000 medical bill we have only 700. With all of that coming up I encouraged Carl to let us get our taxes done early to see if we would get a refund.
Quick plug in...if you don't like to pay big bucks to have your taxes done by professionals Turbo Tax is a great way to do them on your own...it was so simple and very easy and was as if we had our own tax expert right at home with us. Definitely worth the 40-50$ investment and sometimes you can get it for cheaper on-line.
Now back to our regular schedule programing.
Honestly, we really thought that we were going to have to pay taxes again this year because, Carl making so little that he does at his job, claimed the highest number of exemptions he possibly could on his W2 which left us a very minimal amount being deducted every paycheck. I encouraged Carl though to remain hopeful and trust the Lord, and trust that if we did have to pay that He would provide that for us somehow. Instead though we got an even bigger surprise when with all the other deductions we were able to get we were being given a refund that is going to cover all of Carl's medical bills, our moving expenses, and leave us with enough left over for a possible get away before baby boy is born, and even a 1000$ emergency fund. That emergency fund is something we've been praying about for a while and seemed like it wouldn't happen.
This whole experience has left us truly humble in a lot of different ways. Humbled by the fact that our God loves us so much that he works out all of the tiniest details when we commit to being faithful to him. Humbled by the fact that even when we our stuck in our own selfishness and pride He still loves us so much not to leave us there. Humbled by the fact that sometimes making big sacrifices can have the hugest payoff in the end.
We are feeling very hopeful about 2010. It seems as though by moving someplace a little less expensive we may actually be opening up doors for Carl to be able to take a class at the seminary. God has already given Carl many options to pay for it as friends that really want to see him go have offered to pay for a class or two but he hasn't taken it because he believed in his heart that working 2jobs and going to school would be too much on our little family so he has waited, patiently. Now by moving somewhere smaller and cheaper we can probably just make it off of just Carl have one job leaving him with the ability to not have to work quite as much.
Please continue to pray for us as we have a move to make in about a month and it's going to be a little strenuous. Pray that we will continue to honor God with our finances and our commitment to be faithful with the little things. Pray that God would open those doors for Carl to go to seminary this fall even if it's just to take one class. Pray that we would be willing to make sacrifices to get to the place we believe God wants us. And pray that our faith would continue to grow and prosper and that we would cherish these times as they do so quickly pass.
God does work in mysterious ways and sometimes he works through tax refunds. :)
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