Foolish Miracles (re-written)

Foolish Miracles.

There are many reasons to believe in God, Goddess, a Higher Power, a Supreme Being.  By whatever and however you want to call This One, there IS just one.  It matters naught, the term, phrase or title you choose to call this One.  From the vast beauty and diverse creations in nature, to the awesome display of lightning, to new life constantly being born, hatched or sprouted into existence.  The visible proof and testimony that one can see, touch, hear, taste and smell cannot be discounted: God does exist.  The very complexity of everything in nature, the universe, the synchronized movements of how planets, moon, stars and sun in each galaxy rotate...and so many other awesome displays of intelligence, tells us, there IS a Higher Power, God.  Now, a story about a more personal experience that let's me know that God cares for us and continues to watch out for us and provide.

This is a TRUE story that happened in January, 2007. Why I am telling it to the public, is because, so many people either don't believe in God, or have lost their faith in Him. I have, over the years, been asked why I believe in God or told "God does not exist", by non-believers. It is my hope, to change the hearts and mind-sets of those who read my story, while encouraging those who do believe and have faith in Him. This short story, it's all true. It happened to my family and me. Also, I want to give glory, honor and praise to God, by telling this true story.

About a month ago, my brother's work changed payroll companies. They did not bother to verify direct deposit accounts and for the past two weeks, many of the company's employees had no paychecks, because the payroll service had direct deposited their paychecks to closed bank accounts.  Well, my brother was one of those employees. So, it's been 3 weeks since he's had a paycheck. Which left my mom and I to handle everything.

Past due notices and disconnection notices hit us a week ago. We were about to lose our house phone. It was scheduled to be turned off on January 9, 2007. You see, my son, who is now in the Army and first stationed in South Carolina and now in Georgia, had made many collect calls to me, which I accepted. We talked a long time each time, daily, sometimes twice in one day. We finally got hit with the bill for all those collect calls a little more than a month ago. I was expecting about a $200 phone bill. What we got was a bill of over $400!!! I paid what I could then, bringing the balance down to $371.11. We received a disconnect notice if payment was not received in full, by Jan. 8th. We just paid our rent $1,125 and nobody had anything to give them. So, I took the cheaper way out and bought a pre-paid TracFone .. an investment of $56 VS a $371.11 phone bill.

Well, on Saturday morning (Jan. 6th), I say to mom, "We already have the disconnect notice. What would it hurt to talk to them and see if we can get payment arrangements on that $371.11 balance? The worse that can happen is they say no and we still lose our phone on Jan 9th". So she thinks about it a few hours for what to say to AT&T. She calls them up later that afternoon, explains to the Customer Service rep, "I am retired, living on SSI now. My grandson is in the Army. He was first stationed in SC and is now stationed in GA. I accepted his collect calls, not realizing they'd be so much. I don't get much money on SSI, can I please get payment arrangements for this $371.11?". The phone is in my mom's name, so she had to make the call. The Customer Service rep reviews her account ... "Yes, Mrs. E*****t, I can offer you the following payment arrangements. Pay $11.11 today and we won't shut off your phone, but you will be placed on Restricted Service (we can't make calls outside a 12 mile radius or accept collect calls). Then to pay the remaining $360, make 3 payments of $120 each on these dates: Jan 20th, Feb 3rd & Feb 17th". Ok, so I pay the $11.11 that day and our home phone service will not be shut off now.

But, now, nobody has money for groceries. The only food in the house was potatoes, 10 pounds of rice, 1 pound of barley, 2 pounds of dry beans, 1 large can of enchilada sauce, 2 small cans of tomato sauce, 7 eggs, half a loaf of bread, 4 small tomatoes, 1 can of spinach and 1 pound frozen okra. We were faced with having to go a whole week of little/no food. Now, in the past, we have had a day or two like this, before one of us got paid...but never ever had to face a whole week of nothing much in our cupboards! Monday night finished off the last of any real food we had, leaving only the rice, barley and okra for meals till Friday - Jan 12th when my brother & I get paid from our jobs. Four days left and nothing but mostly rice to eat.

Yesterday morning, our ISP and Cable TV was shut off. We were told we had till Jan 12th to pay them, but they turned us off early. My brother calls them and argues with them about it. They agree to a payment arrangement, pay by Jan 15th, we will still be without services, but they will waive reconnection fees and deposits, because it was their error for shutting us off early. That was the best arrangement he could get from them. For now, I am using a free ISP until he pays them and our ISP and cable tv services are turned back on.

My brother works at one of those recycle bins you see on grocery store parking lots. When he went to lunch yesterday (Tuesday), he comes back to find a huge pile of plastic pop bottles, glass bottles & cans piled up at the back of his bin. No note, nobody sitting around waiting for him to return. Just sitting there waiting! He leaves the pile there, till the end of his shift to sort and weigh them. Guess how much he got? He had almost no gas in his car, so he fills it up ... $22 + change for that, goes and buys us a few groceries enough just for dinner that night and a gallon of milk ... $12 + change for that and still has almost $10 left over! That's about $42 to $45 he got from that pile left piled up at the back of his bin.

This morning at work, my store manager passed out gift cards to all of us... a reward for being a Flagship store! It was a $50 Walgreen's Gift Card. I buy us $22 worth of groceries there before leaving work this morning.

My brother's work got the mess figured out about the payroll and assured him that a special courier will be dropping by our apt tomorrow (Thursday, Jan 11th) with his past paychecks! They did arrive, as promised and he paid the ISP and Cable TV bill. We now have them back on.

So, what's my whole point of telling you our story? The point? You can't tell me that God does not exist and watches out for us. Do you realize the odds of all this happening, just when we needed the help the most? Do you know just how many plastic 2L pop bottles, glass bottles & cans it takes to generate $42 to $45? Do you? Try saving them up yourself, you will soon learn it takes A LOT!!! About 540 plastic 2L pop bottles will get you about $43. So, you can't tell me, yell at me till you are blue in the face and pass out screaming at me "There's no God!" ... I know He does exist. Only God could have moved these people to do as they did.

We don't know if was just one person who left all those bottles, or several. What's the odds of even one person leaving that much for my brother? What's the odds of many people leaving just one bag full of them for my brother, all at the same time and on a work day, too? Only God could have put it into the hearts and minds of those who left those bottles and cans to do as they did, all at once. Only God could have moved the AT&T Customer Service rep to offer us payment arrangements after issuing us a disconnect order and even remove our disconnect order. Going AGAINST company policy? That being, once a disconnect order has been put out, it is not reversible.  Not without paying a hefty reconnection fee and deposit.  Only God could have moved that AT&T rep to do that.  Only God could have moved our ISP rep to give us till Jan 15th to pay that bill and waive reconnection fees and a deposit.

I have worked for Walgreen's almost a year and a 1/2. To my knowledge, we have never even come close, to being a Flagship Store! So, God knew this hard time was coming and started what was needed to make it so we were a Flagship Store for the $50 award to come now. God did all of this for my family and myself. Our Christmas Miracle may have come late, but it came just when we needed it to. So, you can't tell me He doesn't exist. You can't tell me He didn't make this happen. He does and He did! He has always provided for us in strange ways in the past, albeit, in much smaller ways. But this time, God really came through for us! He continues to do so.  This is why I believe in God and in Foolish Miracles! Do you?