I am completely blown away by God's faithfulness and patience with us in our learning curves. I mean I knew this already but I know it even more now, He really does love us and He really is the best Father we could possibly imagine!
Almost exactly a year ago, after taking a Financial Freedom Seminar course my husband and I decided that although we qualify for Medicaid we wanted to try to pay the doctor's bills by ourselves as I was expecting our second child. We made the decision not knowing for sure wether or not the idea was from God or just our own but we decided that in order to be able to hear God better we had to step out and make some choices and see what the results were so that we could learn from them.
At the time our income just barely covered our living expenses so my husband started maintaining some friend's yards in order to get some spare money each month. Even that wasn't entirely enough to cover the Doctor's bill but each time we needed it, the money became available in some way or another. We were so excited when we paid of the last Doctor's bill when I was about six months pregnant. We knew that God had sustained us to that point.
Then we went to the hospital to set up a payment plan for the actual delivery and hospital bills. We were completely caught off guard when we were told that because we qualified for medicaid they could not set up a payment plan for us, either we had to come up with $10000 before the delivery or we had to apply for medicaid and have them cover our bills. We were so crushed and confused. Up to this point we truly believed that God had provided what we needed to pay our bills but we were pretty sure $10000 wasn't just going to pop up in a few months. This is the point where we really had to stop and look at our motives as to why we had made this decision in the first place as well as evaluate exactly how we had gotten as far as we did. We started to see compromises we had made along the way and things we had started to entertain like pride that were even starting to separate us from our friends. We had even started to allow ourselves to think that we had a higher revelation than everyone else who was in a similar financial situation as us. We prayed through these things for about a week and repented together for how we had allowed a seemingly good idea to consume our lifestyle and take away from our family and fellowship time. We then swallowed our pride and applied for medicaid.
We never did regret paying the Doctor's bill by ourselves even though it was a rather large sum of money because we realized that we never would have been able to overcome some of those things that got exposed without allowing ourselves to try this and learn our lesson, and yes, get a sort of spiritual spanking. We never expected to see that money again.
Through this experience we were so grateful for the tender way God dealt with us that He worked with us the whole way and protected us and we never felt accused or abandoned. He even blessed us and provided in unexpected ways. After we repented He opened the floodgates of blessings even wider, our house sold after being on the market almost four months with no viewings, the first people to look at it were the ones to make the offer. Our house was under contract the day after our daughter was born. Everyone was amazed because of how terrible the market is right now in our town.
That wasn't the only blessing, our babies birth went so well that from the start of my first contraction to the time when she was born was exactly one hour. I was also able to walk from the delivery room to the recovery room without assistance which I was told almost never happens. The baby even beat the Doctor who came just after she was born. The whole experience was just so amazing and blessed I can't even put it into words.
We named our daughter Kaitlyn Grace. Kaitlyn meaning pure and Grace, according to the Greek translation of the New Testament scriptures, means God's diving influence on Man's heart. So her name together means the pure, divine influence of God on man's heart. How fitting to sum up our journey through that past year. Her name even now is a constant reminder of God's faithfulness to us even when we make wrong decisions.
Now here is the fireworks display at the end of this story and the reason why I am writing this now, so long after this whole ordeal. Today, we found a check in the mail from the Doctors office for the full amount of what we paid in. As far as we understood medicaid wasn't going to cover that because we had paid it too far ahead of the time we were accepted. I still don't know why we got it but I was so amazed that I burst into tears when I saw it. I was just so overwhelmed by God's grace and love and all the memories of His faithfulness flooded back.
Another amazing part of this testimony actually refers to a different part of our journey based on 2Corinthians 9:6 that says if you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly and if you sow bountifully you will also reap bountifully. This convicted us a while ago because we were so concerned about our finances for so long that we were generally not willing to help others in need even if we were able to. We have really been working on this and trusting and believing God that if He was able to provide for another's needs through us, He would be able to provide for our needs when they arose. So we actually have been excited and thanking God when He provided what we needed to help someone else and we've really been enjoying the opportunities He's been giving us lately. So this check in the mail not only reminded us of His faithfulness and grace in our past season but also solidified the truth of this scripture stronger in our hearts. Our God is a good God and He means what He says, don't ever forget that Breanna!
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