You often hear how the Lord cares for the little things in life, yet it’s rare we give Him the credit for those little blessings that come along in life.

It’s no secret that since returning to the States finances have not been something we’ve had in abundance.  Don’t get me wrong, we’ve never gone hungry, or suffered from not seeing the doctor, been late on all our bills or called by a collection agency or anything like that… but, there have been months when every dime we’ve had pretty much just went to standard living… food, electric, water, gas and the like.  This  means that often gifts and things like clothes get put off or missed completely for a while.  It gets a little old when you have friends having babies or getting married or are having surgery and need a meal, and there you are, unable to purchase them even the smallest of gifts, or fix them a batch of soup or make up a simple casserole.

Sometimes I wonder if the Lord ever missed a bridal or baby shower, or brought a casserole to a friend.  But then I remember, He’s on the “man” side of human nature in His earthy role… so, these weren’t his concerns in the day.  That was left for the Marry’s and the Martha’s J

Last Christmas was another one of those times for us.  Thankfully I had shopped earlier in the year for the girls gifts and had them nicely tucked away for Christmas.  But Sam and I had decided that it was not going to be a year that we could find gifts for each other.  I was fine with that, Christmas for me isn’t about the gifts and it doesn’t change my understanding that Sam loves me if I don’t get a gift from him on Christmas. But I had a baby shower coming up.  It was a special friend, it was her first baby… I wanted to go, and I wanted a gift.  My heart was broken that I couldn’t get her anything.  Finally I spoke with Sam and he said that since we weren’t gifting each other, if I didn’t get stockings either I could pick up a gift for the baby shower.  I was so excited to have my $30 limit!   I got on line and looked at her registry.  Tried  to find something I’d like to purchase her.   I found a gift in my price range and headed out the door to the shower intending on stopping at the store on the way!

I got to the store and searched high and low.  I pulled the paper registry to find the isle location for the item I had chosen… it wasn’t there.  After getting the assistance of three workers, I gave up the hunt.  Having no idea what to pick up for my friend I searched the isles… then I found it!!!! The item that I had wanted for my friend was right there, tucked behind a bunch of other items!!!  I was sooooo excited.  Knowing I was on a tight budget, and not wanting to humiliate myself by getting up there and finding out the item was more than I expected I did what I always do… I found the little scanning machine so it would tell me exactly how much the store was going to charge me.  Beep… item not found.   Beep… Item not found… grrr… Running out of time I decided to risk it.  I headed up to the check out, item in hand, just praying it wasn’t over the $30 limit I swore to Sam I’d stick under!

Finally it was my turn in line.  I readied myself to grab a gift card in the event that the item was over the price I had expected it to be.  Beep… manager assistance needed.  Great… As the manager approached I realized it was one of the ladies that was helping me in the isle.  I told her excitedly that I actually found one (contrary to the computer that said there was none!)  “Wow, this really is your lucky day” she says as she reaches over and types in her managers code.  The young man that was attempting to check me out says, “That’ll be six dollars and seventy three cents please.”  WHAT!?!?!  “Yep says the manager, you found one that was on final clearance.” Hallelujah!  Not wanting to arrive there and find out she decided she didn’t need said item that I purchased I grabbed a gift card for $20 (so she could take it back and get something at the price that I had intended to gift her if she had changed her  mind.)   I left so thrilled, but ultra paranoid that the gift was one that was already purchased or no longer wanted (not that my friend would have cared at all… why do we stress like that!?!?!)  When she opened her gift, she was ultra excited!  It was the one thing she was hoping she would get still!  I was thrilled… not only had I chosen something my friend liked and would use every day, but I now had a gift card to purchase a Christmas gift for Sam with!!

I knew I wasn’t supposed to get Sam a gift, but I also knew that he had a need.  A need for a pair of jeans that didn’t allow for others to know the color of his under garments!! When I returned to the store a week later, I found not only jeans for the gift card price, but also a nice new top that would allow him to wear some of his summer wear in the winter time as well!! PRACTICAL!!!!  The Lord sure was looking out for me that Christmas.  As His timing would have it, a check came in just in time, and I found a pretty little package for me wrapped up under the tree.

It’s silly really.  We would have lived without gifts for Christmas, and there was nothing so urgent about being able to purchase my friend a gift. But these were things that were dear to my heart… and the Lord worked it all out.  We are truly blessed!  Thanks !

Shortly after Sam and I were married and I moved into his flat, that became our flat, we realized that we were in dire need of more storage. Apartments on the other side of the ocean are very different than apartments in this country. They often come furnished (though, not always the nicest of furniture) but often you get an empty room with no cupboards, or cabinets (even in the kitchen) sometimes even light fixtures are no more than a bare bulb in the ceiling. We were fortunate that the flat we lived in had had a very nice “remont” or remodel. It was an old building, pre-Soviet for sure. It was lovely flat and I was so thankful for it. It’s peacefully painted green walls (no heavily patterned wall paper that is most often found). It was spacious enough and had nice high ceilings (to make it feel bigger than it really was) and it had a nice big safe feeling door. It had a nice clothes washer, and was blessed with a dryer that Sam bought me with wedding gift money we had received. We were also able to buy a beautiful red couch… the Lord took such great care of us and provided everything we needed. But there just wasn’t enough room in the one tiny skapis/???? or “wardrobe/storage cabinet” that we had. So, off to search for a skapis we went. Furniture over there is expensive and funds were pretty tight, so we decided we’d look at a few used furniture places. First we went to a few new furniture places, just so we knew what kinds of prices new furniture was. We went out to M?be?u nams (Furniture House, a place that had not as expensive furniture) and Jysk (the local “Ikea” type store for Latvia). Buying even bottom line new was going to hit the top of our budget. So, we went way out of town, across the river and to a part of town I had never been in to a used furniture store. Now, mind you, furniture for Sam and I is difficult enough to begin with. We come from very different sides of the style isle when it comes to what we like in a “look” for furniture! Anything I thought was antiquish or charming he thought was horrible “soviet”, anything sleek and modern that he liked I felt was cheap and chintzy! It was quite a challenge. Then there was cost. We had very little we could even spend on a skapis… so the challenge was considerable. After spending most of the day looking at furniture we finally found a piece in this second hand store that we BOTH could live with… the moment of truth… could we “afford it.” It was only 120Lvl!!!! WITHIN the budget, and considerably less than anything else we’d found out there to purchase! I was excited! It was a compromise, but one we could both live with! Finally a solution to having to cram things in every crevasse of our flat! It was a very functional piece, it was actually more like a series of pieces. It was more like several units that fit together to form one big piece, sort of more like we would consider a modular entertainment center actually. Some glass doors to display things in, some solid doors to hide things behind. We could actually split some of the pieces up and use it in the two rooms that was our apartment. I was excited, I was SOLD! Sam on the other hand, being who he is, felt the need to hit one last store before we “committed” to this piece. I was dead set against it. But, the piece had been there for quite a while. You could see that it had sat in the store for several weeks, as each week the price of the skapis was lowered a little bit. No one had wanted this skapis in the last two months… it should be fine… so off we went. The last store we visited was horrible. Pressboard items that were falling apart were over 200Lvl (think near $400) it was crazy… so back to the “sectional skapis” we went. We had been gone a grand total of two hours (it takes a long time to travel about over there). We headed to the very back of this wear house that was the “show room” and as we rounded the last isle of furniture I see the piece. I give a little smile and tell Sam to go ahead and look for someone on the floor to help us. That’s about the time that I saw it… the sign… p?rdod My heart sank! And I was a little bit more than disappointed in my husbands decision to continue “shopping around”. Poor Sam… I’m pretty certain I was not very kind to him on the way home, or the week that followed, when anything regarding a skapis or ???? was mentioned. Yep, I pretty much held it over his head. (SOLD). Shortly there after however we received an email through the “missionary network.” There was a couple down in Daugavpils (3 hour drive south) that was leaving Latvian and had furniture to sell, would anyone be interested! YES!! They had a wardrobe that was in the right price range, not knowing what it looked like at all, we said that yes, we believed we wanted it and would be down that weekend to purchase it. IT WAS PERFECT! It was exactly the style that Sam and I both liked enough to invest in, and the price was less than HALF what the “sectional skapis” would have cost us!!! Not only that, we saved so much on the wardrobe itself that we were also able to purchase the LOVELY BRAND NEW looking stove they had to replace the old busted “have to stick a wooden spoon in the door and hope the temperature is low enough to bake” crummy old soviet era model stove that our landlord had provided. I truly believe the Lord sent someone to buy that skapis out from under us that day. Specifically sent someone, to specifically buy it what felt like “out from under us” THAT day, in that two hours we had stepped away from it! He provided something so much better than I was hoping for or expecting (humm… sound familiar), not in MY timing, but in His. Yes, I apologized to Sam for being so mean to him, and for blaming him… and too this day when something doesn’t work out all he has to say is “Skapis” and I realize that I’m not the one who’s in control. Right now we’re waiting on another “skapis” story. Is it any easier to wait? No, not really… it should be, but it doesn’t always feel that easy. I don’t think anyone likes walking blindly, but that’s what we’re asked to do. We are blind in this world, but the Lord has our hands, and is gently saying “do you trust me?” I want to say yes, and through all my will I force myself to say yes… but it’s a lot of work to hold every thought captive. So, today I will chant “Skapis” humm I might even just go find how to say it in every language Google Translate has J He’s taken care of me/us thus far… what makes me think He’s gonna stop now.. hum… wonder who that could be International translations for Skapis: Skapis, ????????, kas, veshjet, ?????, armari, ??, ??, garderoba, šatník, garderobe, riidekapp, lalagyan ng damit, vaatekaappi, garde-robe, Kleiderschrank, ????????????, ?????, ?????, fataskápur, lemari pakaian, armadio, ??????, drabuži? spinta, ??, gwardarobba, dulap, ?????, šatník, ???????????, t? qu?n áo, cwpwrdd, ??????????…