WOW! What a day of overflowing blessings! Where do I start?!

1. My sister and her daughter came to church with my parents and I today!!!
2. Before Mass, God allowed me to witness an act of love. There was a teacher’s aide who had spent numerous hours last night baking a chocolate cake and a vanilla cake for the students graduating this afternoon. The graduation was going to be held at the church. On the vanilla cake, I watched her lovingly place bobbleheads she made, each with a photo of a graduate on the face of the bobblehead! She even made one of the teacher! I loved this idea because the bobbleheads have the actual faces of the graduates and it’s a great souvenir/graduation gift for the graduates! On the chocolate cake, she placed edible photos of the graduating class (actual faces again!) so it looked like the class photo! It was so creative and thoughtful of her!
3. After Mass, I met a fun guy visiting from Croatia!
4. After Mass, one of our church friends generously gave my mother and sister sandwiches and pastries to eat while my dad was at choir rehearsal and I was in a meeting.
5. After Mass, a new friend to whom I had given a book (The Catechism of the Catholic Church) last week unexpectedly gave me a “Thank You” card!
6. I got to take my family out to a Gospel Brunch for the first time ever and it was at a restaurant we haven’t been to in 10 years! The food was incredible, we easily got a great parking space, and we thoroughly enjoyed singing along with all of the Gospel songs played & sang by the organist. Then we met the owner/chef, who came out and sang along with us! What a joyful time we had! I ate an amazing seafood omelet and I got to take home leftovers for lunch tomorrow! My sister was very happy with the chicken and waffles and my parents LOVED the food! All of the servers were fun and funny! A GREAT Gospel Brunch!
7. We all got to enjoy the delicious slow-cooked pork & yucca soup that my parents and I made together yesterday!
8. 4 dozen organic free-range chicken eggs!
9. God sending us rain so that my mother would not have to water her vegetable and flower gardens and the birds get to enjoy a nice shower!
10. Sold a hairbrush on eBay today!
11. Got to visit my cousin at his new house for the first time ever and I am very grateful that they are letting my relatives from California stay with them!
12. My mother did not prevent me from giving apples, oranges, and pears to our relatives.
13. My mother decided to take us out to dinner. We initially went to a restaurant that’s a family favorite, but decided to leave after waiting 40 minutes for seats. I asked God to guide us to where He wants us to go. It was clear in our hearts then that we would go to a nearby restaurant two blocks away so that we would be able to leave the car where it was already parked. As soon as we got to this restaurant, we ran into our church friends with whom we have been friends for 30 years! We got to chat with them while we were both waiting for our food to arrive. We also got seats immediately even though the restaurant was super busy! The food was fantastic, every dish was cooked exceptionally well, we got leftovers to eat tomorrow, and the service was extraordinary!
14. Soft-shell crabs are in season and we got to eat them for dinner!!! (Thanks Mom!)
15. Our waiter gave us free dessert to eat there and another order of free dessert to take home!
16. After dinner, my friend (the one who gave me the “Thank You” card at church today) called me right after I arrived home (perfect timing!) to tell me that he had finished reading the first 25% of the book I gave him and that he absolutely LOVES it! He loves that it’s logical, philosophical, non-imposing, written in a way that is easy to understand, simple, and he is now recommending it to everyone he knows! Quite honestly, this phone call was the peak of my day, because he initially refused to accept my gift of this book The Catechism of the Catholic Church when I gave it to him last Sunday (but then he changed his mind and accepted it) and this left me wondering whether or not I was doing God’s will. By my friend calling me to tell me how much he loves the book and that he can’t stop reading it reassures me that giving him the book was a good decision.
17. My niece was incredibly well-behaved at church, at Gospel Brunch, while we were waiting at the first restaurant, during dinner, in the car on the way home, everywhere we went!
18. All day long, God has been reassuring me that He is taking care of my every need, because He knows how much anxiety I have. First, He gave me His steadfast and deeeeeeeep peace during prayer while I was at Mass this morning. Second, when the priest was holding up the Eucharist in the middle of Mass, God gave me a vision of a heart (perhaps to remind me how much He loves me?). Then after receiving the Eucharist and praying on my knees, I pushed the pew kneeler back up and right there on the floor appeared a leaf in the shape of a perfect heart. Third, one of the Gospel songs sung at the Gospel Brunch was called “God Is Taking Care of Me” and the lyrics, especially the chorus, just really allowed me to let go, relax, and enjoy the moment of having brunch with my family. Fourth, I took the “Thank You” card out to read after talking on the phone with my friend and on the cover was this quote “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. ~2 Corinthians 9:8” and inside the card was a beautiful, heartfelt poem he had composed!