love comes tumbling

i already knew i had THE MOST amazing friends and the best family. i knew it, because i am constantly reminded of their awesomeness, and i am continually humbled, encouraged, strengthened, and challenged by the degree to which my dear ones rock.

but i've said it before, and i'll say it again:

God is GOOD all the time.
sometimes He just hits you over the head with it.

so yesterday i posted a post about the wedding bugdget, and this angsty dance i am doing about how to celebrate this incredible blessing with our friends and family without going into debt, draining my emergency fund, or including the line "bring your own table service" on the invitation. i was feeling positive, but slightly overwhelmed. so i wrote, i prayed, and i started making phone calls.

and that's when i decided i should start wearing a hard hat, because GOOD THINGS started falling out of the sky.

like, for example, emails from friends with lists of things that they could contribute to the wedding planning - things like hair and makeup prep, folding tables, big salad tongs, brute strength, organizing skills, pretty handwriting. an email from my sister about friends that thrown an eco-friendly outdoor wedding, and she's already talked to the bride, and she's already agreed to be my go-to consult for all things rockford-outdoor-eco-wedding. i called my family's church and asked, just out of curiosity, if we could borrow their long folding tables and chairs for that day, and they said "sure! what time should i have the deacons deliver them?" no joke.

and then, out of no where, came the most amazing gift.

my sister and her hubby do not read my blog. i've sent it to them both, but they have never looked at it, so this came purely out of God's heart and their brains.

my sister and i had already scheduled a long phone call for last night to go over some legal questions about mom's estate, and to set up a time to meet with the lawyer again. we got through the long list, and then roo told me that she and her hubby needed to talk with me about how to go about paying them back for for money that i owe them from settling mom's home equity loan. she said that they knew that we had a wedding to plan, and they didn't want to stress me out.

and this is the part where i hear hubby in the background going "put me on speaker! i want to tell her!"...

and he got on the phone and announced that he and roo have decided to cancel $3000 of what i owe them for mom's estate. [insert my stunned protest here].

he went on: mom had given them $3000 when they got married, and my brother and sister in law $3000 when they got married, and she would have given me $3000 when i got married if she could. he also said that before mom died, he promised her that he would take care of me. but then i met Yale, and he didn't know how he should fulfill his promise. he knows that Yale will take good care of me, but he also knows that Yale is still looking for a job, and that we have no idea how long it will take. so this is his way of fulfilling his promise. to take this weight off my shoulders, so that i can have a little wiggle room in my wedding budget, and pad the emergency fund (aka: 'the rent fund' until Yale gets a job...). they are in a place to be able to give it, and they are excited to do it.

my sister starts clapping and crying on the phone. "yay!!!" she said. "yay for happy wedding funds!". she added that if it were up to her, she would not ask for any money back from me. to which hubby warmly and wittily replied "that's why i'm the comptroller of this partnership".

when i told Yale, he was first a little ruffled, but i assured him that my brother in law had made up his mind, and that he was not going to change it. that we should be thankful, and we should honor God and our friends by celebrating our wedding with them in a way that my parents would have helped us to do if they could. and then we both cried.

because really, what else can you do?

i'm still sticking to the "under $8,000" goal, but we now we may be able to have everyone have his or her own chair.

love comes tumbling.