I Experienced a Miracle!
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My Miracle
When Noah was born in 2012, we received a bill for several hundred dollars that wasn’t covered by our insurance. Someone at the hospital suggested that I request a deduction in the bill, and we ended up needing to pay only $10! The massive reduction of that bill was a huge blessing for us.
When Isaac was born this winter, we received the same bill. I requested a deduction again, but my requests weren’t going anywhere.
Nate and I are thankful for our insurance coverage, but it comes with a pricey premium and a pretty steep deductible. Paying nearly $1,000 (for a bill that we had reduced to $10 for Noah’s birth!!) along with bills for an expensive hospital stay and c-section delivery was frustrating to say the least.
This past May on a Monday night, while meeting with our small group from church Nate and I requested prayer for our medical expenses and specifically for this bill. On Tuesday I talked to the billing department and requested a significant discount again. While on hold, I was able to text our small group and tell them to pray.
Unfortunately, the conversation didn’t go as I had hoped. I hung up the phone, felt defeated, and cried.
Later that day I told Nate that I should focus on the fact that we were blessed by having the bill reduced with Noah rather than feeling like it unfair that we have to pay the full amount with Isaac. I was trying to change my attitude, but it wasn’t easy!
Fast forward to Saturday. Nate sat down to pay the bills. He opened yet another envelope from our insurance company, but instead of it being a bill it was a check. Guys, it was a check for over 3 times the amount of the bill we had been disputing!!!
Nate said, “I don’t understand why we got a check, but I’m depositing it!”
On Tuesday, I was defeated and crying. God hadn’t answered our prayers. Yet on Saturday, God blew us away. He showed us once again that His plans for us are better than our plans. His timing isn’t always our timing, but that doesn’t mean He isn’t listening.
Plus, I went on to have an amazing weekend and earned a significant amount of money through my online work. Then on Monday, we received a generous financial gift.
Over the course of 3 days, we received over 12 times the amount we had requested prayer for just days before. Over 12 times the amount!!! Praise the Lord!
More Than Just Making It
Have you been there? Crying over bills? Praying for financial relief?
Are you there right now?
Financial hardship is real. It is stressful and all consuming. It can feel embarrassing and even shameful.
In Erin Odom’s book More Than Just Making It, she is breaking down the stigma of the poor. Erin pulls back the curtain on her own financial struggles and acknowledges a group of people that many privileged Americans are clueless about: the working poor.
Erin’s husband was working full time as a teacher and Erin was a part-time freelance writer. They both had a college education. They were cutting costs in all the right places, yet they simply couldn’t survive on their income.
My husband sees this in his line of work all the time. He is the director of a homeless shelter, and constantly sees residents in his program that are working full time jobs. For many Americans, financial hardship is just one crisis away. All it takes is one medical emergency, lost job, or car accident. As my husband says, “Poverty isn’t a moral issue.” It can happen to any of us.
For those of you who are barely holding it together, I urge you to read More Than Just Making It. I believe you will find comfort in Erin’s words as she validates the struggles that you are walking through.
Along with sharing her personal financial journey and challenging us all to rethink the stereotypes we may have about the poor in America today, Erin Odom also shares practical tips to help you cut expenses and increase your income.
I especially appreciated the chapter Erin wrote about recognizing the ways God provided for her family, which is why I chose to share our miracle story with you today. I hope that you will be encouraged by our miracle, and will take a moment to recognize the big and small ways that God is taking care of your needs.
You can find out more about Erin Odom’s book at MoreThanJustMakingIt.com. You can find the book at Target, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and your local library (request it if they don’t already have it!).
Is there a miracle you are seeking? Let me know how I can pray for you.
Disclosure: I originally shared this miracle story in my monthly newsletter, but the response was so positive, I wanted to share it here as well. You can sign up for my newsletter here. This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Simply Rebekah. I was not compensated for this review of More Than Just Making It. Top image by Alvimann via Morguefile. Bottom image by Victoria Wilson.
Hi Rebekah, I may be missing something but why did your husband not query the insurance check? If the company had not made a mistake then that’s wonderful, but if it was a mistake then I’d have thought keeping it is tantamount to stealing. God sometimes allows things like this to test us.
But I may be wrong!
This is so encouraging to me! We have had such an incredibly difficult two years.
When we were expecting our 21 month old daughter the insurance company through my husband’s employer was supposed to pay 100% of our home birth. She was due in the beginning of January. In the middle of December, my husband’s employer announced that they were changing insurance companies on the first of the new year. Mere weeks later our precious daughter arrived. They didn’t pay a cent.
We desperately need to pay this bill but everything we own has been breaking repeatedly … Especially my van. Honestly, this has been the hardest two years of my life.
I would appreciate prayer more than words can say.
Hey Rebekah. Please pray that my ex Shawn will start paying regular child support and that a huge portion of the arrears he owes comes through.
Please also pray that i get approved for disability and an apartment and benefits.
Rosie, I prayed for you this afternoon. May God bless you and your children.
What a wonderful testimony and example of how God can work miracles in our lives. My husband and I experienced a similar miracle years ago. We had the opportunity to finally get county water instead of our current water supply of very limited well water. However we had to come up with a $900 fee for the tap and water line. Long story short, we received a rebate check in the mail for a refund from the insurance company for a hospital bill we had overpaid when my son was born. The amount of the check: exactly $900. Praise to God for providing exactly what we need, exactly when we need it.
Wow. What an incredible story. Thank you for sharing!