I believe in miracles. I think they happened many moons ago in the very same way they are happening now. The problem is, we often don’t accept our miracles, or we possibly just overlook them because we are busy.

Miracles come in all shapes and sizes. They can be grand or they can be ordinary in their appearance. Sometimes miracles look like having the strength to get out of bed and live life for one more day. Sometimes miracles look like cancer patients somehow becoming cancer free. And sometimes miracles look like gems from heaven.(Kenj and Leah, I threw that in there for you!)

No matter what our miracle looks like, it is so important to acknowledge it. I love to thank my Father for even the smallest miracles because it makes me happy & I think it makes Him happy too.

So here is the story of my recent miracle:

When I showed up to Xiantao on Sunday I was sick and needed a lot of rest before Tuesday, when my classes start. Then I got to my apartment (which I was so excited about) and I loved it! Not everything was perfect, but in my mind this was MY apartment and I was beyond ready to move into it. Once I started moving in and making my bed I realized there was a slight issue. This was my bed…

This was the mattress on my bed. The green part is a piece of plywood.

I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t super excited about the “rest” I was going to get on this bed, but I thought, “oh well, I’ll tough it out for a month and then try to buy a real mattress.”

After my first night sleeping in my bed, my body was pretty sore. I knew it could be worse and I kept staying positive by telling myself that I would probably get used to the hard bed in a few days.

Then that morning I got a knock on my door. It was a Canadian girl named Stephanie. She is 22 years old and is an English teacher here as well. Her father, Stephen, is a teacher here too and has been teaching here for a couple of years. She was knocking on my door to invite me to breakfast with her father and her– and I went. At breakfast, we got to know one another and it was great! I absolutely love them both. We have had dinner together the past 2 nights. I am pretty sure Stephanie was sent by my Father so that I have a good friend here! During our breakfast, Stephen asked about my bed and I told him it was very thin, but it was okay! He explained that I should have a good mattress and that the school should pay for it as part of my contract. He told me I could not sleep on that mattress any longer if I wanted to get to feeling better.

Then the miracle happened. He said, ” Rachel, go look in my room at that mattress.” So I did, and it looked like a dream! He then said, ” I already have that mattress, but I bought a new memory foam mattress yesterday. You can have my brand new memory foam mattress and I will order myself another one and sleep on my current mattress until it arrives.”

I can’t express to you all the joy and relief I felt in that moment. I was desperate, but I had chosen to accept and be content without a mattress and as soon as I did a knock at my door led me to provision from my Father via Stephen.

Woah, Nelly Furtado. I am so thankful for miracles.

Goodness. I feel so looked after. Even when I am far from home and far away from the friends and family that often look after me, my Father is with me making sure that I am well taken care of. The strength and courage to move to China are not my own, it was provided by my Father, and the good gifts I receive are not my own, they are from my Father.

My lovely bed that I fell asleep in sitting up last night because it was so comfortable:)

So as a reminder, don’t look over your miracles. Every single day a miracle happens in your life and it is up to you to see it and accept it and to be thankful for it:)

P.s. For those of you that have been chitchatting for China and chitchatting for me, I need you to know that this mattress is an answer to those chitchats. Even if you didn’t know what you were asking for, Joshua did and He made sure that I got it! So THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!

P.p.s. I will post again soon with more pictures of my apartment! If you’d like to keep up with my blog, be sure to click follow on my home page! Thank you all for the encouragement and support!!