My exciting find

If you know me at all, you’ll know that I am an avid bargain hunter. I rarely pay full price on something, and probably 99% of my house is furnished with used, garage sale items. Someday I will go around and take pictures of my awesome deals, because yes, I’m proud of them and boast. LOL.

I’ve been praying for a while now that God would give me a good deal on a set of bunkbeds. Not any set mind you. They had to be white (or able to paint white), wooden, and have a rail on the top.

You see, over New Year’s this last year, my eldest daughter fell off the top bunk (with NO rails) and broke her arm. Since then, we’ve separated the bunk bed to make two twin beds, but there is seriously NO space in their bedroom now. They have maybe a foot between the desk and dressers and their bed. It is impossible to keep any kind of clean, and more than a little annoying.

Since January, I have been avidly combing craigslist for the PERFECT bunkbed. I knew it was out there. Every time I found one that would work, I’d e-mail as soon as I saw it, but alas, it was sold already. GRRRR! I almost bought a less than perfect one for $250.00, but just didn’t feel right about it, so passed.

Then this morning, before I left for work, I hopped onto the computer (well, not literally, you know what I mean!) and checked really quick.

And there it was. The PERFECT bunkbed. Complete with mattresses and bedding, and for only $125.00. I was BEYOND excited! But, my hopes soon deflated when I saw that it had been posted at 10:00 p.m. the night before. Surely they probably had an inbox full of inquiries already. But I sent my e-mail quickly instead of calling, because it was only 7:00 a.m. But then I talked to my mom and she urged me to go ahead and call anyway. So, praying that they were awake, I picked up the phone.

And guess what? She answered, and they weren’t sold! AHHHHHHH! I seriously almost squealed. I was so excited the lady probably thought I was completely out of my mind!

My mom and dad picked it up for me tonight (it was over in their area of town), and they’ll bring it by sometime this week, but I was just so excited about my find I wanted to share. God really did provide for us and in his PERFECT timing too.

How does this related to writing?

You knew there was a writing analogy in there somewhere, right?

In my story of the bunk beds, I knew God wanted me to buy them, and I also knew that he didn’t want me to waste $500 – $1000 on buying a new set. For those of us called to write, or really any other calling, we have this deep, burning desire to fulfill our calling. We know God has told us to do this.

I e-mailed many, many bunk bed seller’s from craigslist, but to be honest, very few if any were “perfect.” They were all concessions I’d made (okay maybe it doesn’t have to be white, I think that is a kind where you could nail a rail to–our’s currently is NOT–, Can we fit a twin over full in their room?) or they were more than I wanted to spend. Each time, I either got an e-mail back saying, “Already sold.” (a.k.a. not the book we are looking for or we already represent something similar) or no response at all.

It can be defeating after a while. You might want to give up (I searched online at the new bunk beds MANY times).

I think you can understand where I’m going with this… Patience is hard, but we HAVE to believe that God knows best. His timing is perfect and it is not always, in fact is rarely, our preferred timing. You’ll get discouraged frequently, but don’t let it get you down. Take heart, eat a piece of chocolate (just one…) and keep on plugging away and obeying God. He has it under control. No worries!

Of course, I have to post the picture of our new bunk bed. It has a few scratches, but it’s exactly what we need and a Godsend!