We have a wonderful school associated with our church that I would love for all the younger children to attend. Our middle son, Tyler, has been going their for middle school and it has been a wonderful experience for him. Samantha starts middle school in September and she would love to go their with him.

Unfortunately, we were not sure we could swing it financially. The school does not give a very big discount for the second child and we were also looking at the fact Tyler needed to start his second phase of braces which we still needed to pay for.

I have prayed for guidance in this area. Dave and I both felt a strong pull to put Samantha and maybe even Garrett at the school for next year. We just weren't sure how we could possibly afford the cost.

I continued to pray trying to trust in the fact that if God wanted them there he would provide a way.

One day several months ago we received a call from one of Dave's cousins saying that a distant relative had died with no current Will. She and her daughter would be handling his estate and they needed our current address to give to the lawyer. Dave's dad would have been a beneficiary as he was this gentleman's first cousin. Since his Dad died several years ago his immediate family, Dave and his sister, were entitled to his share of any inheritance.

I felt badly that we did not know this man, cousin Hollis, and yet we may be profiting from his death. I prayed he knew Jesus and was happily standing at Heaven's Gate. However, Dave nor I really had any idea about this man and his life.

Weeks went by and life went on. We forgot about cousin Hollis and his Will.

Until the day we got a big package in the mail from an attorney's office. I couldn't imagine what it was and it took a few minutes to figure it out. It was pages and pages of gibberish. We finally figured out it was about cousin Hollis and his estate. We had to sign a few papers and send them back to the attorney. We got a good chuckle at the list of beneficiaries. Dave had no idea he had so many distant relatives, some living not to far from us, their must have been 40 or 50 names on the list.

Several months went by and cousin Hollis and his estate were forgotten about again.

There was laundry to do and baseball games to attend. Not to much time to lay around and think about the $10.00 we were probably going to inherit from our long lost cousin.

Again, weeks passed and another envelope arrived. The amount each person would receive from the estate was listed somewhere in the huge mound of paperwork that had been sent. I gave it to Dave and he promptly threw it on the dining room table and ran out the door for someones ball game. I certainly did not have time to look through that mess. I figured we would look at it later.

Well, after several days had passed and no one had bothered to read through the documents our oldest son asked, in a disgusted tone, if he could read the documents and figure out how much we were going to receive.

He wanted a new baseball bat and was sure cousin Hollis was going to provide enough money for at least that. lol.

I guess Dave and I should have been a little more interested but for some reason we just never took the time to look at the documents.

Until Zachary found the page that stated the amount our family would receive. Way in the back. On something like page 32.

It seems our portion of cousin Hollis' estate was a little over $11,000.00.

Almost to the dime the exact amount we needed to pay Samantha and Tyler's tuition for the next year and pay for Tyler's next phase of braces.

Praise the Lord!

The next morning I enrolled Samantha in the Middle School. I cannot tell you what a blessing this has been for our family.

When we enrolled Tyler last year we had no idea how we were going to afford the tuition payments. However, we felt that God would be faithful and he was.

Now he was providing enough money for them both to attend!

I wish there was a way we could thank Cousin Hollis and let him know how thankful we are for his generous gift to our family. He will never know how he has blessed our lives.

However, his memory will live on as our children tell others about this miraculous gift and how God allowed their lives to be blessed through it.

We truly are so very thankful!

Note: A few days ago I told you all that God was taking our family down an exciting path. One we were excited to follow. Believe it or not, this was not it. I will tell you all about our surprise tomorrow. I hate to keep you all in suspense but I am having a hard time writing the words down on paper and expressing what I feel so deeply in my heart. Thanks for your patience.