...against all odds

I've been doing a lot of swimming upstream lately...
so God has been teaching me some new "strokes"...

He's been dealing with my control issues...
and tendencies to get stressed as to "where" & "how"...
all the issues of my existence that I have "entrusted" to Him...
will be resolved or dealt with...

the most daunting is the issue of money...

I realized months ago that the first week of December...
would require an lot of cash...
my 6 month car insurance premium [$440]
my car registration renewal [$149]
and my 1st installment property taxes [$738]
and I had no clue as to where the money would come from...

well, they say that God works in mysterious ways...
and I could have never imagined the scenario that has unfolded...
in order for these needs to be met...
[and it's not even Thanksgiving yet...]

some of this is recap, so bear with me...

last month, I received a new card for a credit card...
that I hadn't used in a long time...
it has a $500 limit, so I activated it...
when I went to the DMV site online...
I discovered that I could use it to renew my registration...
so I did... which solved part of the problem...

encouraged...

I did some reading of my car insurance premium notice...
and discovered that there was a monthly payment plan...
WITHOUT an installment fee of $5 per month...
IF I set-up auto-payments...
so I did that too...

another problem solved...

also in October...

I went for my bi-annual cleaning/check-up at the dentist...
only to discover that their method of billing has changed...
meaning that my long-held, and now paid for by me, dental insurance...
was no longer cost-effective...

it used to cover all check-ups & cleaning completely...
now, only about 50%...

the dentist forgave me the $106 that was now a co-pay...
but it got me thinking that since my next appointment/cleaning...
wasn't until April and I was "paid-up with the insurance until March...
maybe I could cancel and get a refund...

so that's what I did...
[I'm not going to have it anymore either...
saving the $680 payment due in March...]

of course, it takes a month to cancel...
then they send a check, etc., etc., etc...
so I've been waiting & watching the mail...
because it's been really wet...
and lately, the carrier has been putting it on the wet doormat...
instead of in the mailbox, leaving me with a soggy mess...

so yesterday, I was thrilled to find the check...
in the mailbox, nice & dry, in plenty of time...

also in the mailbox was a notice from my homeowners insurance...

I'd been told that they would pull a payment of $64 in November...
[I had set-up auto-pay with them...
to avoid a similar monthly installment fee...]
the surprise was that they would pull the first payment in December...
so that meant that the $64 sitting my checking account...
earmarked for insurance could now go towards the property taxes...

I deposited the insurance refund in the bank on the way to the church...
while I was there, I was given a check for $500...
a refund for my Columbarium niche...

if you're keeping score, I now have $500, $171 & $64 towards the $738...
only $3 short, and it's not even Thanksgiving yet...

I believed that He was going to provide for those big expenses...
over $1300...

I could have never guessed or even figured out how...

God is good, indeed...