How my life has changed since I started giving...

A few weeks ago, I noticed a huge amount of people posting on facebook about donations. I'm not sure if those types of posts have always been there and I just now noticed, or if it is a new trend. I'll be completely honest. When I first saw these coming across my newsfeed, I thought what I'm sure a lot of people think...
This isn't for people like me...
This is for rich people...
I can barely afford to feed my family, what makes these people think that I can just hand out money to their gofundme account...?

But then, I saw a post from a friend that said, "What if you just donate $1.."
I decided that I would.

 But not this paycheck! I will one day though.. I promise! 

It wasn't until I saw that that very friend who had her own gofundme decided to donate all her donations to another friend, that was when I finally realized that it was time. It was time for me to open my heart like she had done.

My very first form of giving was at church. I decided that I would finally tithe. I had the same opinions on tithing as I did on donating to gofundme. I thought it was only for the rich. My 10% at the time was only $15! However, I gave. 

Fast forward to later that week, our washing machine gave out. We called a mechanic that came out to assess the damage. He said we would be better off buying a new machine. As previously mentioned, we were only clearing about $150 a week at the time. There was no way we could afford that. I started shopping around and mentioned my issue to my mom. She said, "Oh! Your brother has a brand new machine just sitting in our shop! You can have it!"

 It was like a miracle! 

Fast forward two days later, Joel had already given up looking for work and decided we would just continue to do what we were doing. We would have to continue to struggle but him quitting school wouldn't be an option for us. Out of nowhere, he got a phone call. He was offered the postion at Coca Cola he had been turned down for a few weeks ago. This meant a DOUBLE in annual salary for us! My first concern, however, was about the kids' insurance. I was afraid they would lose their government provided insurance with Joel's change in salary. I called them and they said that the children would still be covered and we could choose whichever insurance we wanted for them. 

In one week, we had 3 things that helped us financially. I knew right then that I had to keep giving.

Call it karma, call it a blessing from God, but whatever you call it, IT IS WORKING for me. 

Since then, I have continued to give. I've given to church regularly, as well as two other extremely good causes. One of them is for my friend Zee whom is trying to afford life changing surgery. The other is the woman that was donated the other funds from my friend. I knew if it was that important to my friend, it must really mean something. She is a mother trying to afford a vehicle for her family. I'm linking both of these below.

 Just as my friend said,
"What if you just give $1?"

To donate to the mother that needs a vehicle

To donate to Zee's Surgery