A few days before Christmas, I was feeling very heavy hearted about life in general…. On the fanatical side of life things could be better, the house needs work, the girls school fees for the new year need to be budgeted for, Christmas gifts, Leah’s up and coming hospital visits, its like our snow ball just keeps on growing and I was feeling tired, emotionally exhausted I remember waking up and asking God why everything had happen to us, I remember saying “I don’t mind the snow balls Lord….just stagger them if you can, why do you send me a huge ball of difficulties…..I just cant handle everything at once, I need a break to breath,” I was angry and I hated the heavy feeling pressing on my chest.
Christmas Eve my husband and I decided to do our last Christmas shopping, with what was left of our free spending cash, we were going to do the shopping on our own but Heather and Alex (my brother and sister-in-law) decided we make this a group outing, so we waited and left for the mall in one car, we were planning to go to a mall close by but on the last minute Alex and Heather said we should skip the little mall and we took the off ramp to the big mall a little further away…………… now this is were our story begins
- 1st blessing….. The mall was surprisingly quiet!!!! We had missed the flurry of crazy shoppers and breezed from one store to the next without any problems!!!
- 2nd blessing we found the most beautiful gifts for the girls and Aunty Heather and Uncle Alex decided that one gift was just not enough!!!! So we left the store with so much more than we expected
- 3rd …blessing Ashley got hungry!!!! Yes only my husband would feel hungry after having breakfast about and hour before we left, he was the only hungry one in the group and he made us pull off for a pits stop at a little coffee shop.
- 4th blessing…. Leah decides to smile and wave with a gentleman and kind lady sitting at a table close by
- 5th blessing… the gentleman walks over to our table and hands Leah the cutest soft toy and says that she has been smiling with them all this time and he just feels the need to give her the little toy dog as a early Christmas gift, I was so touched that a stranger could be so kind, I then go over and thank him and the kind lady and at the same time I hand him the web address for our blog
- 6th blessing… a few minutes passes by and the gentlemen returns to our table, this time he takes out a role of money and says that he feels he need to bless our family with this cash and he puts the money in my hand gets up and walks away, now by this time I am in shock my husband has no expression on his face, I don’t know what to say, this time I go over to them and ask them why??? They don’t know me?? What stranger just gives money away??? He introduced himself as Steve from Ambassadors for Christ now when he said that I had goose bumps all over!! The lady who’s name is Heather had tears in her eyes and all she said was “Because you were obedient to God and kept Leah he will always provide just carry on and trust God he is real” Steve then tells me a story of how they were not suppose to be in Cape Town, they were actually visiting friend in Durban who decided to bring them along to Cape Town for a holiday!!! I am so overwhelmed by what happened and I thank them and walk back to my table
- 7th blessing Steve returns to my table and says that God had spoken to his heart while I was holding Leah and speaking to them at their table and he handed us another role of cash, he smiles wished us a merry Christmas and walked back to his table.
We were not suppose to go to that specific mall in the first place, we had such a huge breakfast before we left I could not understand how Ashley got hungry so quickly and our plan was not to stop for any snacks bcause we had limited time to do our shopping!!
God blessed us with two thousand rand in cash, two thousand we never had when we started our day!!! I only realized after everything took place Leah was so happy and friendly, she blew a kiss at Steve and Heather as we left the coffee shop and its not like Leah to be so friendly with strangers, but obviously she saw more than strangers… im sure she knew what God was doing through these people.So I sit here today replaying the events of Christmas Eve over and over in my head….. And I’m speechless, as to what can only be the work of God….. I know now without a doubt that God has a plan for our family, we just have to trust him; he used two complete strangers to erase whatever doubt was left in my mind…. How awesome is our God!!!
Raising Leah 