Just Because

My oven has been out on my stove since about September last year. It was so old that it wasn't worth fixing, so we were just going to buy a new one. Well, we started on the journey to find the "perfect" one. I looked at Lowe's, Conn's, Sears, Home Depot, Best Buy, and any other store that sold ovens. The stove top worked, so I fixed food that could be put on the stove top, or cooked in the crock pot. Then I also figured that some of my small (very small) pans could fit in my toaster oven. So I did some things in it, not much though. I kept putting off buying an oven because my kids are rarely ever home anymore, and so cooking was in small amounts. I got out of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Mom took care of those. Although I did miss it a little. At Christmas, my grandma gave us $50. We bought a convection toaster oven. A bit bigger. I could fit a bundt pan, loaf pan or 9x9 in it. It was working well for what I was doing. Only problem was when my son Jeremy wanted enchilada casserole or lasagna and it doesn't work well in a 9x9. We had the $ for it several times, but put other things, (more important in my mind) ahead of it. For instance, we had the foundation repaired, fixed the transmission on the truck, bought my son a (used) car as a wedding gift, spent money on their wedding stuff, getting new cabinets for the kitchen - a section at a time. The little oven was doing it's job, and I was okay with that for the time being. Well, two Sundays ago we had our bible study meeting and I baked a blueberry cake in my toaster oven. Not one piece was left over. Unknown to me, my friends started talking and said, "If she can do that in a toaster oven, what could she do with a "real" oven?" They conspired against (for) me. One friend sent me an email saying she was thinking of replacing her appliances with stainless and knew I had done some research on ovens and what did I find that I liked. Fully plausible in my mind, so I emailed her back with the two I liked best, but mine were in black, not stainless. So, on Friday, off I go to our ladies retreat in Giddings, Texas. My friends had been unable to go because of opening baseball weekend for their kids. On Saturday, my friend calls me at the retreat needing my husbands cell #, her husband wanted to get in touch with him. Again, fully plausible, no need to think anything was up. He called my husband and said they were bringing something over for me and would he be home? yes he would, so they came.
I came home on Sunday about 5, just exhausted from the weekend. It was good, but you come home tired. I walk in and set some stuff down, walked in the kitchen and threw some things away and back and forth I went. Then I noticed everyone kept looking at me with this weird look. My husband finally said, that our friends had brought me a gift. He turned me toward the new oven, the one I had sent in the email, that I had walked past 3 times, and not noticed. Of course, I cried! I was so overwhelmed by their generosity. Just because, was the answer on the reason why. Just Because they love me. So, this Sunday at bible study, I told them I was cooking dinner for everyone. Thank you my Friends. God Bless you!