Internet, I think you’re going to like this story.

This past Sunday, I went to Toys ‘R Us

to find birthday gifts for MacKenzie and Angelina

(I am planning a mermaid birthday party!).

I really wanted to get MacKenzie a digital camera,

because she loves watching me take pictures

and has asked me for her own camera for years now.

Unfortunately, all of the point and shoot cameras

that were worth anything at all

were still too expensive for my birthday budget.

When I was standing there looking at them,

I silently thought “I really wish I could get her a camera.”

It was one of those deep heart wishes.

I want to pass down a lot of things to the girls,

and photography is definitely one of them.

I want to do so many things for the girls

and have such limited resources to do it with.

As it turns out, God must have been

standing in that Toys ‘R Us aisle with me last Sunday

’cause, apparently, He heard what my heart was wanting.

– — –

This afternoon, I called MacKenzie, age eight.

“MacKenzie, do you remember that picture

I took of you when you were little

wearing that white dress in the fountain

outside my office?”

She told me she remembered.

(This is likely because I have that photo plastered

on her bedroom wall, my kitchen and my office.)

“Well, I entered it in this contest on this lady’s website.

Her name is the Pioneer Woman

and she picked the picture of you as a finalist!”

She was excited, very excited.

So… imagine how excited she’s going to be

the next time she comes to my house

and finds that I’ve used the gift card I will win

(all finalists get a gift card!)

to purchase her very first digital camera.

– — –

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed when I think about the five girls.

You just have no idea what all I want to be able to do for them.

Ballet lessons, school supplies, baby dolls.

Those are material things, I know,

and trust me, I want to do so many non-material things for them, too.

But some of the material things

like ballet lessons, school supplies and baby dolls

and, as you now know, cameras

mean more to them than they might mean

to another little girl since they don’t have

what a lot of other little girls have.

And so, since I know those material things would mean a lot to them,

those material things have matter a lot to this girl, too.

And knowing that He provided

something I so wanted MacKenzie to have

reminds me that He is the provider, not me.

Thank God.  But really.  Thank God.