"Count Your Many Blessings. Name Them One By One."

This past weekend Marcus and I have been trying really hard to count our blessings. Saturday night I finally broke. I couldn't stay positive anymore. We were heading back to Mom and Dad's and I didn't want too. I wanted to go on a date and just not worry, but how are we supposed to do that without money? I wanted to have fun with my husband without having to worry like we have the past three months.

Financially we are still struggling. But we have remained faithful and have paid a full tithe. For a while I thought to myself whats the point? That money could be going to things like bills and other things we financially we need to take care of.

Tithing though, along with financial support from our family, is what is keeping us going. Because we keep paying it we are seeing blessings. One, we are being prompted by the Holy Ghost on things we don't need. We have sold a cell phone, a computer, and working on selling another cell phone for extra income. Ebay is wonderful.  In the past weeks I have gotten a job that allowed me to work 51 hours that week. I was tired but I was able to bring in extra income. Then I get phone calls from Marcus' school to sub as a para. Money making opportunities are appearing. Hopefully they will keep coming and we will be able to get caught up on all of our bills. Including health bills.

From the ER visits last summer, we were 13,000 in debt just from medical bills alone. In the past year we have gone from 13,000 to 300. And our church decided to take care of the rest BECAUSE we were full tithe payers and doing everything we can to make good financial decisions.  Yay! ALL THE MEDICAL BILLS ARE GONE!!!!
One for sure though, along trying to count the blessings of tithing, is counting our blessings period. Especially when we are both so broken down that it is hard to stay positive through this extremely challenging time. It seems that since we have moved out here, that things just got more challenging. I couldn't tell you why. Financially I swear we didn't struggle this much. But maybe we did and we just avoided the problems. I am not sure but counting blessings help. Here are some of my blessings I have seen.

*Learning even more how my family loves me and how much they are willing to do to help us.
*Friends who show their loving support through all of our trials
*Blessings from Tithing: Two new jobs, help from the church.
*A Lawn Mower.
*A wonderful little miracle growing inside me. I am now in my 29th week of pregnancy and Lydia is healthy and moving. Especially around my bladder :P
*My dog, Charly and cat, Nanners.
*My extremely supportive, loving, compassionate, self-less, hard working, patient, musical, talented, and encouraging husband, Marcus.
*My testimony in the church
*The temple and knowing that families can be together forever, even ones who haven't been born.
*A house
*Even though being far away from home, we moved into a very loving community.
*And the education I have already received and hopefully the education I will receive in the future.

Those are just some of the blessings I know I have received just within the past few weeks. I just need to keep my chin up and keep trucking. Marcus and I have learned a lot in our first 2 1/2 years of marriage. Especially in the last year with just finances. I know we will keep learning and we will push through all challenging times.
Thank you to everyone for your love and support.

Karin Marie