Eric and I just got back from our fun ten-and-eleven year anniversary get-away.  We had wanted to do something special for our ten year last December, but decided for a number of reasons to wait until we were back in the US to do so.  Our friends the Weigels and my sister and brother-in-law Beth and Gene graciously watched our children for the four days we were gone…

A brief summary of where we went, and then check out below HOW we were able to get -away (which is the best part of this entry):

We stayed at a B & B on Tilghman Island, Maryland, which is right on the Chesapeake.  We wanted to go to the St. Michaels area, and were not disappointed!  Tilghman Island is about ten miles south of St. Michaels and we loved being somewhat removed from the bustle of a busy town but close enough to enjoy it. We loved, loved the Lazyjack Bed and Breakfast… we had a wonderful suite (fireplace and double jacuzzi!), and were served beautiful, delicious gourmet breakfasts.  Our favorite was this morning:  poached pears in a berry sauce, and then baked french toast stuffed with blue cheese.  Absoutely amazing.  

The area was beautiful.  We saw amazing sunsets over the Chesapeake each night, and enjoyed beach-combing on deserted beaches as well as walking in the morning around the boats as the sun poked through.  St. Michaels is well known for its antique shops, quaint buildings, and fine dining, and we enjoyed exploring it leisurely.  And we had great crab, oysters, and simple dining on the edge of a pier.

It was a really wonderful time, and we were proud of our kids for doing so well without us (Is it a bad thing that they didn’t seem to miss us at all the first 3 days??).  

The Get-Away Rest of the Story:

 Two weeks ago, I was looking at the calendar and realized that if were serious about celebrating our anniversary in a special way,  this past weekend was one of the few weekends when we were really free to get away for a number of days.  I found a cruise leaving from Baltimore to Bermuda from lastSaturday, and we started talking about the possibililty.  In line with the Bible Study I’ve been doing with some ladies at church, when I was praying I asked God to show us really clearly His will re. all of this.  I wrote down 3 specific ways that God would need to answer for us to do this:  a) childcare completely covered;  b) the funds completely covered, and c) a “good deal” on whatever we ended up doing.  Childcare came together quickly, but the last two were bigger challenges.

b) the money… When we looked at our bank account, we realized that we just didn’t have that much money to get away without dipping into savings, which I didn’t feel comfortable doing based upon what I felt like God was saying.  We looked into cruises, going to the Caribbean on a cheap flight, etc- but I knew we didn’t have enough money.  Every day I would check the mailbox in case God dropped money into our lap somehow- knowing he could do that! – but there wasn’t any.  A few people started asking us where we were going and it was weird to have NO idea.  We looked into cheaper options, like driving somewhere in North or south Carolina, or staying a timeshare in FLA, but even something like that would be a thousand dollars.
Finally, on Wed, we decided to go to St. Michaels on the Chesapeake in MD and stay at a B & B.  I thought we had about $700 that we could spend for 3 nights or so. We did a lot of research on a romantic get-away place, and decided on one place on Thursday.  Eric called and reserved it but they asked for a visa card, which he didn’t have, so he said I would call the next morning with it.  But that night, when we looked at our bank account, we really didn’t have enough to do even this.  I felt sick.  No surprise money had fallen in our lap.  And we had a lot of unexpected expenses that previous month that we still needed to pay for.
Friday morning, before calling to make the reservation, I did the last unit of the Bible Study I’ve been studying on listening to the Holy Spirit.  I went back and reviewed the 3 things I thought God was saying about our get away, and I had a sad feeling because I didn’t feel like we could make the reservation based on what God had said – we didn’t have the funds completely covered (and we had chosen St. Michaels because we thought it was affordable based on what we could pay for – but it really wasn’t).  But there was a section in the devotional on trusting God and not being afraid to trust him.  So I prayed and just asked him to take care of all of this.  Eric was coming home soon and I knew I would need to talk to him about other options if we didn’t have the funds, but I wanted to trust God with that.
After praying, I went over to the computer to look at our online bank account  to see why we didn’t have the money I thought we did.  My jaw dropped open.  That morning, there was a 2000 dollar deposit – it was our childrens refund credit from the IRS.  Deposited THAT MORNING.  I literally dropped on my knees, started sobbing, and all that I could say over and over again was “Thank you God.”  Olivia thought her mom had lost it.  
We had no idea that money would come…  Because of living overseas, and our kids being adopted, Eric had to file 2 extensions for this, and we didn’t know if we would get anything.  (Olivia still doesn’t have a SS number so it’s hard to prove on paper that we have 3 children, which is what is required).  They ended up giving us credit for 2 kids, and the money was deposited one hour before we needed to make the reservation.  We were amazed.  
As you can imagine, it was a joy to call the B & B and give them the reservation number.  They gave us the special weekday rate for Sunday night, as well, so we got a “good deal” (“c”) on what turned out to be a really lovely location.  

Words in a blog do not describe the amazing thing that God did.  He stretched my faith down to the last minute, but it was in order to show me again His wonderful love and care.  He wanted to remind us anew that He loves us to pray in faith, to listen for His voice, to trust the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives.  I know he works differently for each of us, but that He is trustworthy and wants us to continue to listen to him.