The past two weeks have been amazing and I’d be remiss if I didn’t share some of the ways I’ve been blessed.

Several weeks ago I noticed a problem on my roof.  A patch of shingles looked to be wavy.  “Interesting,” I thought.  Not too long afterwards I noticed a hole in the same spot.  Holes and roofs never go together well, especially when it’s raining.  But, through a referral of a referral I was introduced to the most amazing roofer who not only fixed my roof for a wonderful price, but he also let me slow pay because I had other pressing financial needs.

The same time our roof was beginning to look more like Swiss cheese than a solid roof, my husband’s car died. … completely died … at 11:45 pm … on the freeway on his way home from a business trip.  Never a good situation.  However, just a few days before I had mailed in our AAA renewal.  Although we did not have our AAA membership cards yet, AAA agreed to send a tow truck out to tow my husband and his car home.  Both made it home safely at virtually no cost.

Also around the same time, we received two medical bills in the mail that were unexpected.  These two bills totaled about $400.  We believed our insurance was covering these costs, when in fact, these bills are our responsibility.  “Ok, those were unexpected, but Woohoo, I have health insurance now … something I didn’t have a few months ago.”

This brings us to two days before my husband and I were leaving for our trip to San Francisco.  One of our dogs became quite ill and miserable.  So, off to the vet we went.  A few hundred dollars later I was bringing home my pup and a host of medications and supplements.  We were blessed with two sets of friends who graciously came over several times a day to take care of our dogs while we were gone.  One of our friends had to give our pup medicine at both meals as well as mix supplements into his food.  How thankful we were for friends who would do this for our beloved pets.

The night prior to our flight home from San Francisco we were told that our flight was canceled. (We were part of the American Airlines debacle) and there was only a possibility that the airline would be able to fly us home 2 days later.  But, because we were slotted to sign refinance papers for our home the day after our original flight, we had to get home on time.  There was nothing American Airlines could do.  But, a dear contact of my husband’s was able to get us on a Southwest Airlines’ flight that delivered us home just 60 minutes after our original flight schedule.

Because my husband’s car was officially dead, we knew we needed to replace it.  Three days ago we visited our local Saturn dealership.  The owner is an acquaintance and he recommended a terrific salesman who also happens to work in the finance department.  After two test drives we found a car we wanted to purchase, but were not sure we could afford it.  Not only did the dealership take our dead car as a trade-in, but they worked with us to get us into the car we desired with payments that fell within our budget.  We were blessed to drive away in a beautiful 2007 Aura.

While we were at the Saturn dealer I mentioned an issue I was having with my car, also a Saturn.  The Service department agreed to take my car and fit it into their schedule.  In the end it turned out that I had a bad fuel pump.  Replacing this fuel pump cost $600.  Not a minor amount considering the other outlays of money we’ve had lately.  But, the Service department was more than gentle in their dealings with me.  And, it turns out; I had been given a gift certificate to Saturn a few months back that helped offset the cost.

A key piece I forgot to mention … we signed the paperwork for refinancing out house on time. Because we have only been in our home for a little over a year, we were not able to pull any equity out of the house.  However, as a direct result of the brokerage firm working with us we are able to skip two months’ mortgage payments enabling us to cover the costs of all of the above.

As I’ve been thinking about all these things I am overwhelmed with God’s provision and how he uses other people in our lives.  And it is with an amazing amount of joy and gratitude that I realize I didn’t allow any of these circumstances to make me grumpy (that would not have been the case a few years ago) instead, I choose to have a good attitude believing everything would work out in the end.  And it has.

Our attitudes are self-fulfilling prophesies.  What we believe will happen often does because we create that reality.  Choose a Better Life by choosing to embrace situations and believe for positive outcomes.