God is so good

It's tax time again. And for the first time in many years, I faced the possibility of not getting a refund. With two incomes, things are drastically different in the tax world. But we trudged forward and found that we were going to get a refund, and a decent one at that. We proceeded to file and sent off our taxes via E-File only to get a message back less than 24 hours later that our tax filing had been rejected due to dependent issues (we are both divorced and have to alternate claiming the kids with our ex-spouses). We paid a professional tax preparer to look into the situation for us, and basically we were told we were likely out of luck.

But we prayed about and did some research on our own. With a little bit of documentation, we decided to send off our tax forms with a letter and back-up paperwork via snail mail with the understanding that they would not process our taxes for 6-8 weeks and that it could be 6-8 months before we saw any money.

This morning, while doing some financial "work" to get ready for having the baby, we accessed our checking account online. Much to our surprise, our balance was dramatically higher than we expected. Our tax returns came through in less than 3 weeks! We couldn't have asked for a faster return or better timing!

Along the way, we both agreed not to feel like we were entitled to anything. Part of the reason I did this was to avoid "righteous" anger, and partially because I've always believed that tax return money isn't necessarily an entitlement but a blessing. We had submittted to God this issue and done what we believed was right, but we had no idea what the answer might be. Getting this answer with this timing is such a blessing and further proof why we should always turn these things over to God.

Now we're going to try to be patient for another 36 hours or so until we get to have this baby!