unbelievable blessings

so the brzinski's were having a 'when it rains it pours' experience a few weeks ago.  this is likely far too long for anyone to read that isn't well, me...but we have been experiencing the coolest forms of provision & blessing lately & i must get some of them written!

{sunshine in the rain}

 in december ben was having some chronic pain in his abdomen and after seeing multiple doctors, trying different medicine, etc. things were still eh.  the doctor recommended running a slew of tests and after talking about it, calling our insurance and the care provider to find out the cost, we decided it would be worthwhile to go through with it. {the tests came back fine by the way, yay!} but about a month and a half later we receive a bill that charges us for 100 percent of the cost.  each line item says:

you pay: an arm & a leg

we pay: $0

{over and over and over again}

what was going to be about $150 out of pocket visit turned into about $900, just like that.  but we called ahead!  but we made sure it was something we could afford!  after many many calls to our insurance company while on my lunch breaks & lots of "on hold" music, i find that we need to write an appeal letter.  they keep track of all calls that come in and what each client is told in the paitent's notes and there was nothing for ben at that time.  kind of like they never told us that we would pay 20 percent rather than 100 percent.  we hadn't met his deductible so that was the reason for the discrepancy, but had they only told us that before we may have made different decisions, you know?


the lady was so kind to me even though i was a little testy.  i had to apologize to her, i know it wasn't her fault after all & i hate when people do that to me.  she told me all the steps i needed to take to appeal the claim but it pretty much seemed like a lost cause.  since hundreds of dollars hung in the balance a ten minute letter and a stamp weren't too much for us though.  so we write, we send, we wait, we pray.  i hated thinking ben would be stressed about money.  i hated that it would feel like a burden to him.


then...right around the same time... benny's car went ka-put and was overheating like crazy.  to the point where it couldn't be driven, even to the repair shop.  so ol' faithful AAA came & towed him to the dealership where they proceeded to tell us that we needed about $1,000 worth of work done.  YIKES!  really?  so ben being his thrifty self {i think i'm rubbing off on him} called around to get other quotes.  it's an interesting thing because without looking at the car they don't really know but we got a rough quote of $600 and we like a $400 savings so we got towed yet again to the next shop. 

unfortunately, this was just about the busiest week ever for both of us.  ben has midterms and papers due, we have club and meetings to get to, i'm slammed at work and pushing as hard as i can because i'm scheduled to take off spring break with ben!  we had planned on going down to visit our friends shannon & andy but after our recent financial bodyslams we decide it would be best to reside in lexington.  my oh so sweet lexington parents have an extra car and blessed us so greatly by letting us borrow for a few days while ben's car was out of commission.  we got all the places we needed to be.  didn't miss out on school, work, ministry or life.  it was really an ease to our minds.  i know that not everyone even has a car to be broken, much less a replacement car when it does.


about halfway through the week ben's car {aka the green bean machine, its a phatty van} is ready to come back home with us!  ben goes to pay the piper and lo & behold...our bill is not $600 but only $256.  two-hundred & fifty-six dollars verses one-thousand dollars.  is that not the craziest!?!  gosh, hearing ben say that was like music to my ears. 

a day later, the following thursday, lots of crazy happened.  i worked all day, then we had leadership.  we heard from rick iffland who taught us a lot about living a life hard after jesus & what kind of generation we will become.  it was awesome.  from there i went to steak & shake with some friends that i just love.  they let the old lady tag along.  on the drive to s&s my car started making an awful noise.  ugh!  how is this possible?  i keep driving and hope it will stop.  then my mom called and made an unbelievable offer to let us go to florida and stay in a condo they had just returned from & would help us to get down there for spring break.  i thought for sure that ben wouldn't agree to a trip so spur of the moment {to leave in 2 days} sponsored by my parents.  but i had to get to bible study & so did he so i resolved to wait to talk about it until i got home. i had stayed later than normal at biblestudy that night & when i went to leave i saw a text on my phone that said "good news when you get home"  i had a feeling it was about our appeal letter that we had been patiently awaiting.  but when i got home he was sleeping, so both of our news would have to wait until morning.

sometime in the 6 am hour we were able to catch up and get on the same page.  i tell him that i've figured out my car noise.  it's my heater i've decided.  the noise doesn't happen without the heater.  {later the noise just disappeared...awesome!!}  he tells me that our letter has come back and...the insurance company listened to their recorded phone conversation and that the employee did indeed tell him that they would pay 80 percent and that we'd pay 20 percent and that they would take care of the claim {just this once}!  aaaaahahhhhhh!  is that not the wildest?  we ended up paying even less than we had thought from the beginning!  i never thought they would agree to that.  never.  i don't like to over-spiritualize things but i really do believe that God has provided for us in so many huge ways lately.  it really makes me appreciate the ways he provides for us daily that i am often guilty of overlooking.  we are so blessed.

if you saw my previous posts you probably already know that ben didn't shoot down the florida idea.  he was for it!  so for it!  so, on friday morning we decided to get away together, with the help of my sweet, generous parents.  on friday night we headed to nky to visit benny's family & see some friends who we'd already made plans with.  sunday...off to florida we flew.  {well, not actually flew, but you know.}  i'll be back to share more about that trip & some other incredible things we've gotten to experience & witness but until then i'm just going to give thanks & praise over & over to my God who is for us!