An Unexpected Blessing

My Sisters, I have the most wonderful news to share with you.

But its hard news, its selfish, boasting, look at us news, and it comes in two parts. The first part is the physical, the second is the emotional - spiritual - healing part.

I feel hesitant to share this news with you. How to even begin? I suppose you need to know about the Sisterhood.

A group of women, all around New Zealand, joining together what little they have to make a big difference. The great part of the Sisterhood is that you are welcome to join us, whether to bless or be blessed, everyone is welcome. In the little time we have been together we have achieved much, a smile for a new Mum, reading material for a long recovery post surgery, clothes and toys for a young family who lost everything in their house fire, finances and gifts for a little girl and her parents undergoing cancer treatment.

And then, a few weeks ago. We received something. WHAT!? I know.

And I really really want to tell you about it. But I am hesitant. Because for me, its not really about the stuff that we give, its about the reason. For me its about joining together and giving, because its good to give, because we have so much, because we have been given so much, because we have the power to transform someones whole life. And you know what, maybe we can't pay their mortgage, but we can create smiles, and smiles are life changing. Some days, for some people, just a smile is a miracle. So I need you to know that I am telling you all this because I want you to know how a small gift can transform a life.

Anyway, on with it.

My husband carried around this courier bag in his satchel all week. You see, I get my mail delivered to his work because our letterbox can fit no more that a small envelope in its slot, and there is no where to leave anything, so, I rely on MrMoo telling me if he's received any mail for me. He went away for the weekend, and on his return home he chucked a grey postal bag at me and said "oh yeah, this arrived for you last week". Gosh honey, thanks for remembering.

I love mail. Smiles all around.

I opened it up, and inside, a beautiful card filled with beautiful words from a young girl I met many years ago and have only seen a handful of times since. Inside the card? Cash. Lots and lots of green notes. And floating about this grey bag, more gift cards, for groceries and kids clothing.

Amazing. This is also where I get a bit stumped because what do you say to that besides thank you?? To be on the receiving end of generosity. Wow. Just wow.

Someone had been thinking of me. Moreover, God had been thinking of me. Can I tell you a little secret? Just that day I had been praying "God, don't forget me please. I love to help people, but when I need help, please be there for us.". You see, we haven't had a car for 4 months (I know, please excuse our first world problems). Ours had started to die, so we quickly sold it off and began to save for a better one that would have a lot of life left in it. We had a small budget and for it we weren't able to find anything suitable for our little family. For four whole months. We needed more money. But for our small weekly income there is not a lot of saving room. Dollar by dollar we saved, but we still needed more.

Can I please introduce you to our new car? We bought her this week. Actually. Amongst all the excitement we haven't even discussed the gender issue. Or even a name! Gosh!

I would also like you to know that Camilla has new winter jammies and a whole new range of winter tights to choose from! And. Right now our freezer and bottom shelf of our pantry is bursting; Meats, non-perishables, bags of flour. We are well stocked. (I keep a very very tight grocery budget. We are often running on empty most of the week, but we make do)

So I thanked God. I thanked him for being so sneaky and tricky and delivering such a package of blessings on the very day I finally vocalise my feelings to him ("what if you forget about us!?")

But moreover I want to thank a very generous young lady who felt the need to respond (to what, I don't know) and who followed through. Transforming our world by reaching out to us and sending us an unexpected gift. Not one that we desperately needed, or were relying on to feed our family, but for us made all the difference.

This is just another reason why I love our Sisterhood so much, a small gift sent without any expectation of anything in return, changed our lives this month. I never would have told you that we needed that particular amount of money, because you just get on with life, don't you? Everyone has their own issues to deal with, we can't save the whole world, I'm not different to anyone else, we can survive. There's no need to draw attention to my own situations.

I think thats why I love our "surprise!" blessings so much. If only to say "we were thinking of you..." because who doesn't want to be thought of? Isn't that the greatest compliment? Someone thought of me. For a moment, someone took the time to select a gift of their choosing and send it to me. Amazing. Thank you. Often in return I have heard "I will repay the favour!" But its not about that is it? No, its not. It comes with no expectations and no strings attached. Just accept and be, and know that you are thought of.

Hardworking mums, sisters, daughters, friends - Amazing women who just get on with it. I wonder, do you know of anyone like this? Perhaps they have a unique situation, or perhaps they are just surviving, doing life. Do you think we could bring a smile to their face? Do you think we could let them know that we were thinking of them?

Seriously, is someone popping to mind right now? Email me (sophieslim@moo2.co.nz). Please. I would love to know their names. An address would be great too, because we would love to send them a little something.

If you can't think of anyone but would you love to share the little you have to bring a life changing smile to someones world you can email me too (sophieslim@moo2.co.nz) because soon I will hopefully have an inbox full of the names of strong, beautiful women who could use a smile.

I love you all, really, I do, and I want to thank you for taking the time to read my words and my little story. And finally, I would like to say a public thank you to my donee, thank you for thinking of me. 


**I would also like to apologise to anyone if they thought I was sharing pregnancy news in this post, a bit misleading huh! Whoopsies.