Wednesday, October 1, 2008

We Got The Grant!

I know I haven't posted about this before, but I am soooo psyched about it, I just have to share!
A few months ago, I received in the mail a form from the state about a grant that was available to day care providers, for "facility improvements". Now, this grant is open to family child care providers, day care centers, anyone at all who isn't run by the state itself.
My thought at the time was something along the lines of, "Well, since I've never even so much as broken even on a scratch off lottery ticket, the chances of my winning a grant are probably slim to none. But, what the hey, right? What do I have to lose?" So, I read the directions, and , using my best skills at writing, wrote what I thought was a fantastic grant narrative. I sent it, in triplicate, to the state, return receipt requested, and sort of forgot about it. I've always thought that not winning anything like that meant that God was trying to tell me to depend only on him. I've always figured, if God wants me to win the lotto, I only have to spend the dollar to buy one ticket, and He can make it work, right?
So, in the words of my fav ever pastor RR, I put feet on my prayers and sent the grant app in, then left it up to God.
When the deadline for award letters passed without a word from the state, I took it as a symbol of God's provision in His own way, in His own time, and left it at that. What I didn't take into account, however, was the fact that the budget in our state is truly screwed up, and currently in limbo. Also, there were a LOT of applications for the relatively small amount of money available for this grant.
The deadline for award letters passed, and almost three weeks later, I received a letter from the state. Now, understand, as a daycare provider, I receive a lot of letters from the state. I almost put this one directly into the garbage without opening it, as it bulk seemed to indicate an ad of some kind. But I opened it, seeing as how it was nap time and all.
And then! Well, then, I proceeded to call first, my dh, who was inconveniently in a meeting, and my dmil, who knew of the whole grant app process, and who kindly let me scream in her ear about how thrilled I was.
The upshot of this all is, in a few weeks, I should have a brand new, non-rotting, six foot, cedar privacy fence around my back yard, complete with a locking gate to keep out random animals and predators of all kinds, courtesy of the state, thank you very much!
While I am waiting, I will try to squash completely the conspiracy theorist in me, who is currently whispering that all gifts from the government come with asterisks attached. And the nerd in me, who is shouting,"AHA!", while pushing my glasses up on my nose, is also being slowly silenced by current elation. Since I believe that all things work together for good for those who love God, I will lock both the conspiracy theorist and the nerd in the basement together, where they will stay until I can get the new X-Files movie from Netflix- or at least until the fence is installed!