Even for a homeschool family, there's "back to school" shopping to do. Shopping for school supplies, textbooks, and this year uniforms for both Ben & Olivia for the days they go to the study center for classes. Like everyone else, we've felt the pinch of increased prices and apparently have spoken of this enough that our children watch our budget closely.
I ordered Ben his penny loafer's like Dad's for school and decided to look on line for a pair of shoes for Eric as well (his loafers with holes in the soles didn't survive the last rainstorm!). Eric has an odd shoe size, making it hard to find shoes for him and when we do, they are expensive. I was thrilled to find him a pair in his size on Ebay. I mentioned this while we were all together, and Olivia asked why we were spending so much on clothes these days. We talked about how uniforms and shoes were something everyone needs including Dad.
Eric could see Olivia was not totally convinced, so he slipped off his shoe and showed Olivia the holes in them. They were worse than I thought! You could see the liner through the bottom, and three nails were clearly visible in the heel.
As we were looking at them, Eric told how he slipped in his meeting at corporate last week and the president asked him if there was water on the floor. "I told him no. I knew what it was, but I didn't want to tell him," Eric explained. Then Eric pointed to the nails on his heels and said, my heels slid on the smooth floor and I lost my balance.
Eric left the room, and I started to cry. Olivia looked up and asked why I was crying. I explained that Daddy loved them and often sacrifices his needs so we can first meet their needs, including putting off buying new shoes.
The next morning as I headed out to the Thrift store, it was the day before Eric's next weekly meeting at HH's corporate head quarters. As I backed out of the drive, I prayed and asked God to help me find a pair of size 9 shoes for Eric, so he can at least wear something decent for the meeting until his new shoes arrived.
Sure enough, I found a pair of 9's in nearly new condition and slipped them into my shopping cart, and continued to search for the other things on my list. As I was leaving I noticed a rack of shoes and spotted a pair of new black tassle loafer shoes shoes. I pulled back the tongue to see the size... 8 1/2 EEE. They were the perfect size, in Eric's prefered style, the right color,new, and the tag color of the day, making them $2.20.
I've never seen a pair of EEE shoes at the thrift store -- in any size, let alone Eric's.This time it was God, giving Eric a picture of our heavenly Father's love!
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