20th Anniversary Redux

As the regular reader of randallfriesen.com may remember, our 20th wedding anniversary last August was a bit of a stressful time.

She got me a great present, and I've been racking my brain since then about what I could get her.

To make matters worse I said I was getting her something really cool. This only served to build it up in her mind into extraordinary proportions. I kept delaying it, mostly because I was trying to come up with a "really cool" gift idea. You can see where this was going, -nowhere good for me.

I settled on doing an early winter picnic, classic food and location, she would love it.

Well, I've been planning this "Picnic" for a month now, and one thing after another fell apart. Food, location, logistics, it was all crapping out on me. So last week I began to talk to God about it all, asking for a bit of input.

Finally, without a location, plan, or anything resembling a good gift, I told her to get ready for a hot date Saturday night. It wasn't faith, it was giving in to fate. I would throw myself at her mercy, kind of thing.

Because of recent financial cutbacks in our family budget, there was no money to do anything more than head out to some cheap food place tonight, but bless her heart, she was willing.

Then, somewhere between telling her we should go out tonight, and tonight, we found a envelope in the mailbox.

A friend had placed a gift of a hundred dollars in it, "for our Anniversary".

Wow.

The plan became to use a bit of it for a cheap supper, and the rest of it into our regular budget.

Then, today as I was making plans to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary at KFC, I took a holy shot to the back of the head.

The money was an answer to prayer, designated for use on our anniversary.

I turned around. In Christianese it's called repenting. I called Amy's, the nicest restaurant in Prince Albert, and made reservations for tonight. I called Lauralea and told her to get cleaned up and where we were going. She giggled.

So, we went out tonight and enjoyed an evening like we haven't done in a very very long time. In fact, I can't remember the last time...

We took over two hours and ate some absolutely amazing food. We talked and laughed and dreamed again. And it was all so very good.

As we prepared to leave, the bill added up to a good chunk of the $100. We included a healthy tip and the total was $100.56

I threw in my 56 cents, and with a full heart, left the restaurant with Lauralea.

So tonight I'm grateful to Lauralea, for 20 years. To my friend for 100 dollars. And to my God, for providing for all my needs - and so many of my wants.