Humbled. Blessed. Grateful.

We're a pretty scheduled bunch around here.  Chris and I are both firstborns.  Brooks is obviously a first born.  And Carter?  Well, Carter is just trying to survive among us.  One such regularly scheduled event is grocery shopping.  Every Monday morning we head to Hy-Vee to do our weekly grocery shopping.  Every Monday.  Like clockwork.  In fact, this is so ingrained into my four year old that one day he randomly said, "You know what would be funny??  If we went to Hy-Vee on a Tuesday!"

Yes, my son, that would be funny.

Well, such a funny thing happened this week.  With yesterday's high temp a balmy -15 with wind chills close to -50 (that's 50 degrees BELOW zero), we clearly didn't make it to the grocery store.  We didn't even leave our house.  So tonight, as our fridge was running a bit bare, we all headed to the grocery store as a family.  I know I could have gone by myself (and boy that would have been nice), but with being 39+ weeks pregnant, I gladly accepted my husband's help in loading and unloading groceries.

Knowing that baby could arrive literally any day now, I planned my menu to include meals I could double and freeze.  Plus stock up on other essentials in case I don't make it to the store next week Monday (I'm really hoping I won't make it to the store next week).  Well, with all that extra food needed for the extra meals, our grocery budget for this week was going to go over.  Waaaaay over.  I cut things out, rearranged meals and tried to make it work, but there was no way around spending the extra money.  But, I figured, after baby came we would be eating off these reserves and wouldn't be spending as much in the weeks to come.  "It will all work out" I told myself.

So we shopped.  The boys did great (despite our radical change in routine) and we headed to the check-out.  And then it happened.  That moment when God whispers (or perhaps shouts) to you that He cares.

Chris is unloading all the groceries, I'm trying to get the boys bundled back up in hats and mittens before heading outside and this lady - a complete stranger - walks up to me and asks, "Can I do something for you?"

Um, sure.

She then proceeds to open an envelope and pull out a card from inside.  She explains to me that her employer gave her an opportunity to bless someone and to "pay it forward".  She'd had this card since Christmas, but forgot about it in her purse until tonight.  Then she hands me a $50 prepaid Visa gift card and said she wanted to help pay for our groceries.

I seriously had no idea what to say to her. I was so humbled.  Blessed.  Grateful.  So in as many words as I could muster I told her "thank you" and hugged her.  (I rarely hug my friends, let alone strangers, but I didn't know how else to respond.)  I don't think she really knew the enormity of that random act of kindness.  There's no way she could have known our situation - how "over budget" our shopping trip was.

But the amazing thing is that God did!  He knew.  He knew we would be at the store on Tuesday evening instead of Monday morning.  He knew that she would "forget" about that gift card until tonight.  And He knew not only how much we needed the grocery money, but also how much I needed that reminder that He will always know our needs and provide for every single one of them.