Blessings Abound!

Leeann got her DSi on a Monday. She had $18 left over after her purchase, which wasn't quite enough to buy a game. Besides, she needed to buy more cups and lids for her upcoming coffee shop... which ended up costing $17 and some change.

Her coffee shop was that weekend, and it was wonderful! But we ended up planning for more people than were able to make it and she ended up leaving the coffee shop with only the $18 she originally had in her envelope. Granted, she does have plenty of cups, lids and straws on hand, so that will make for more profitable future coffee shops. This would have been disappointing to her, but she is only 7 and she doesn't fully understand the cost vs. profit ratio. All she knows is that she worked hard, served lots of friends and made some money. She didn't seem to connect the fact that she finished the day with the same amount she started with.

The reason she didn't connect this fact is because the item that she was saving for was a DSi game. By the time she left the shop she had 5, and one promised to her!

The day before coffee shop started a friend of mine from college who has been following Leeann's adventures told me that she and her husband both own a copy of Animal Crossing, and they wanted to send one of their games to Leeann to support her work efforts. She was so excited to be getting a game... and one she really, really wanted!

Then, at the coffee shop, one of her most faithful fans (my former Youth Pastor's family), stopped by. They came with 5 games that they wanted to share with Leeann. These were games that they had either played so much that they were no longer enamored by them, or games they'd already beat. Or, perhaps, games they just wanted to share! It was such a HUGE blessing!

(This is one of the spider cookies Leeann made all by herself)

Then, I got a call from my secretary early the next week that Leeann's packages had arrived. "Packages? I didn't order anything," I told her. So, out of curiosity I had her peek in the packages. Lo and behold, there was a much needed DSi case, to protect her investment, and a Tinkerbell game!

These were from her Great Grandma in Texas, and were a huge surprise!

Leeann took pictures of her patrons this time. The family on the bottom left were the ones who so graciously shared their DSi games with Leeann. They've been faithful coffee shop fans :0)

The whole process has been such a neat learning opportunity. She's learning that there's value in hard work, value in patiently saving for the things you want, and value in serving others. She's also learning that God blesses, sometimes beyond measure, way above and beyond what she would have even thought to ask for! And as we've seen in our own lives time and time again, He often multiplies our money and makes it stretch farther than we could imagine!

Thank you again, for all of you who have supported Leeann, and who have helped us teach her some really, really awesome life lessons!