Answered Prayer

Last November I began praying for God to provide the $5000 deductible for our baby (before I even knew it was Kate I was carrying) before the baby's birth. As Kate's due date drew near and we were no where near having the money to meet this deductible, I continued to labor in prayer with this specific request, hoping the Lord would come through. Kate's due date came, she was born a few days later, and we still did not have the money to meet this deductible. Then the hospital bills began rolling in.
One thing I realized as our bills kept piling up was that we don't just have one $5000 deductible...we have a $5000 deductible for each person in our family. Meaning we didn't just owe 5 grand for Kate's birth. We'd owe 5 grand for me and 5 grand for her before insurance would even start helping. I was overwhelmed. We would be paying on this forever!!

Trey and I kept laboring in prayer over it all, but I just couldn't understand why God was silent. I doubted and was distraught. We strive to honor the Lord by being good stewards of our finances, and this is how He answers? I didn't get it. I was ungrateful.

Then a week and a half ago, after all our bills were in and I had called each place to set up payment plans, a church member asked to see all our hospital bills. Trey swung by the house and I handed off the almost $9 grand worth of bills. The church member took the bills that morning and brought them back that afternoon to Trey, having paid them all. Yes, you read that right. One minute we owe 9 grand and don't know how we will ever pay that off, and the next it's gone. Wiped clean. Just like that. I still can't wrap my mind around it.

As I was going through my prayer journal this morning, I came across that prayer need I wrote in last November: "Please provide the 5 grand we need to pay off Baby Holmes before he/she is born." And all along God was silent, but He knew what He was doing. He was silent because He was saying, "I'll do you one better. I'll pay off everything you'll owe on your daughter, even what you aren't aware of at this time." Had He answered my prayer exactly how I prayed it, we'd still owe $4000 more on hospital bills.

I know this isn't how every need, especially financial, will be answered by the Lord. He is too creative to always answer each need the same way. But it's been such a huge lesson to me and reminder that God's timing is perfect and His provision for our needs is always more abundant than we could ever imagine. He also knows our needs in full. I prayed for that specific financial need as I knew it to be, but God answered and provided for that need in full.

Thank You, Lord, for Your provision. May we be faithful stewards of what You give us!