My Plans VS God's Plans

Before bed last night, I told daddy about all I wanted to do today - go swimming, get the tires rotated/balanced, and a visit to the playground for a picnic. After the chaotic days of Monday and Tuesday, I needed a day to chill and have fun with the kiddos....

Apparently God heard this and thought it was time to teach me a lesson...

2 weeks ago, our fridge/freezer went kaput. We fixed it, but knew the time was fast approaching when we would need to replace it...

That time came last night around 11. Daddy went to get his pre-midnight snack of ice cream and I could see him from the bedroom pressing buttons. This morning, when he woke at 5:30 for work, the first thing he did was go to the fridge and open the door. Between this and the sour face, I knew something was definitely wrong....

The fridge had died...

By the time he left for work at 6:15, we had a plan. I would go to Home Depot and check out appliances since they offered free delivery, set up, and haul away. We also knew that we wanted to replace everything as our dishwasher has not been available for almost a year and our oven was taking longer and longer to warm up.

At 7a, I trekked to Home Depot with my 3, sure that we would be in and out in less than an hour and home in plenty of time before my friends kiddos arrived at 9...

Again, God wanted to teach me a lesson...

The 4 of us arrived there around 7:20. We walked straight to the appliance section where I found plenty of vendors, but no employees. After 10 minutes of searching and waiting, not 1 but 2 employees came to my rescue. I told them I needed a fridge delivered today - tomorrow at the absolute latest. I wanted it to be white. I wanted to replace all of my appliances and needed them the same brand. And then I gave them my dimensions. This pair pulled out and measured every single fridge/freezer there and wouldn't you know that only 1 matched my criteria and dimensions! I said go for it and one of the guys left. The remaining guy, Sean, helped me pick out all of the other appliances. Numbers were plugged in and a quote was given. I thanked Sean and told him I would return shortly after I spoke to my husband...

It was now 9am and my friend was arriving at Home Depot with her kiddos...

I called daddy and we discussed everything. I now had second thoughts and daddy had concerns. I trekked back into the store and no sooner had I stepped foot in the Appliance section, was Sean back asking me what he could do to help. I told him my concern about the stove and daddy's concern about the fridge/freezer. We spoke for another minute and then I decided that maybe I would open the door to stainless steel. However, this would create the need for a new microwave as our current is white...

With Sean's help, we opened the door to stainless. We found one that could be delivered on Friday, but in the 5 minutes it took to call daddy, it was snatched! So we started over again...

Then again...

Then again...

Now it was 10:45. I was done. The kiddos were done. I am sure that Sean was done!

At this point, I had come around to the idea that it would be Monday before we had a fridge and we needed a way to limp along until then....

I had a light bulb moment and decided a deep freezer would be the answer!

Sean and I finally find everything and he creates an invoice. I call daddy for the final okay before making this gigantic purchase official. He gave it, I agreed. Sean smiled. We were done! It was 11:30, 30 minutes before Sean's 5 hour shift ended!

In the end, we got a heck of a deal. Between shopping the deals, asking for discounts, and thinking ahead, we bought just shy of $5000 worth of appliances for MUCH less. This included a $200 discount that paid for the entire deep freezer and gave us $50 left over!

I don't know what lesson God wanted to teach me, but I learned to keep my plans to myself and not tell anyone...that way He can't hear me ;-)