God is good

As you know from my first post, I believe in God. I became a Christian several years back, and although I am certainly not the picture of righteousness, my faith in Him is unwaivering. I want to veer off the weight loss path a little bit this morning to stop and give Him some praise. I found out about something wonderful that happened to my cousin Veronnica and I want to share it with you.

Veronnica has had a hard life. A really hard life. I'm not going to go into major details out of respect for her privacy but I'll try to paint a little picture for you. She and I are the same age. I grew up in Jacksonville, FL and she grew up here in Georgia. When she was 15 years old she moved down to FL to live with us. My parents were trying to give her an opportunity to escape the life of poverty she was trapped in. We moved out of my parents house when we were 18 and ended up roommating together on and off for about 8 years. We are like sisters.

Fast forwarding to now, she is a divorced mom of 3 children, ages 9, 6 & 5. She does not get child support and she does not have any kind of support from her Mom or siblings. She's had help here and there from me, my mom and my sister Brandy, but for the most part she has does it all on her own. She is the poster child for a struggling single mom. She has lost countless jobs due to child care problems, no money, broken down cars, etc. But she keeps on going. She loves her children and wants to give them the best life she can. She keeps trying to put herself through school to become a respiratory therapist and make a better life for her and her kids.

The bills are often late, things on the verge of being shut off, and her car is just a joke. It's a really old car and it's got all kinds of problems. The car overheats every day and she just doesn't have the money to fix it. She has to turn the heat on full blast to cool the engine and keep the head from cracking. Don't ask me why this works, but it does. So her and the kids are driving around in a car that had no a/c to start with, and now with the heater blowing in 94 degree temps.

Due to her constant struggles, Veronnica doesn't have a lot of friends. She couldn't stay at a job long enough to make any due to the child care issues, she's moved around a lot, and she never has any extra money to schedule play dates with other moms and their kids to go do anything anyway. But she does have a friend named Lori whom she met at church. Lori called her the day before yesterday and told her there's a verse in Matthew that says if you see someone with a need, you should try to help them if you can. Then she told her that she and her husband Matt want to buy her a car. Veronnica had the same reaction that I did when she called to tell me about it. Silence. Speechless. Then came the tears. God worked through Lori to send this struggling single mom of three a vehicle to get to work, get her kids to camp and school in the fall and maybe keep her job this time. Praise the Lord! It's a 2001 Toyota Corolla, automatic, with air conditioning!! God is good. :)