Remember, a while ago, I told you about Extraordinary Women? Well, let me tell you the entire story.

I had read about the conference online and thought it would be so great to be able to go. They were coming to Grove City, which isn't very far from my house. An insert showed up int the church bulletin, and the tickets were $10 less because of the group rate. So, I asked Mike if he thought maybe I could go, and maybe Andrea could go with me. And, maybe we could even spend the night. He said we would come up with the money somehow, so go ahead and ask Andrea.

Andre was very excited about the idea. She talked to her Mike, and he told her the same thing mine told me; they'd find the money.

So, we turned in our registrations and money, and waited to get our tickets.

After dropping the kids off in class one Sunday, Jeannette flagged me down with an envelope. My tickets were inside!! I was so excited!!! I had enough time to show Mike, then church started.

Our home group was responsible for the after-service fellowship. We had to make sure there was hot coffee, juice and milk available. We also served the donuts and fruit and bagels. Plus, we had to clean up after everyone was finished. We had brought lunch with us, so after everyone was gone, we had lunch together and talked for a while.

We had a load of stuff to gather up to take home. Miracle had gone home with a friend, so we had all our stuff plus Sam and Grace. We were pretty loaded down, but we got everything.

Or so we thought.

I didn't realize until the following day that my tickets did not make it home with us.

I called the church and talked to the secretary. She said she would go look in the kitchen for them, but they weren't there. When I told Jeannette, she said she would look again in the kitchen. She didn't find them either. I called Rachel, who left about the same time we did, but she hadn't seen them.

I decided I would just go online and order another ticket. Guess what? They were sold out.

I emailed Jeannette to let her know, and I told her it must just have not been meant to be. She replied that I was not to give up! I was going to the conference somehow!

So, I waited. And I worried. I didn't see how I was possibly going to get to go. There were no more tickets! In fact, just yesterday I was looking at how I would go about canceling my hotel reservation through Travelocity.

(We're almost there. Stay with me a little longer.)

So, last night was the first choir practice for the Christmas cantata. I hadn't been in one before, and I had talked myself out of going about a dozen times over the course of the day. But, I went, and I had a good time. I felt rather rusty, as I hadn't sang alto in a choir since I was a junior in high school.

We were gathering up things to leave, and Janie, the director, asked me to stay.

Well, great! My first night, and I'm already in trouble! Just great!

She told me she had something for me. Now, I was puzzled. We're in the same home group, and we've chatted before, but we're not exactly gift-giving close, if you know what I mean. So I couldn't imagine what she had in mind.

She brought her hand from behind her back, and in it were tickets to the Extraordinary Women conference!

She handed them to me, saying she didn't want anything for them. She had planned on going with a friend, but she was unable to get tickets. She didn't want to go by herself, so she wanted me to have them.

Now, as soon as I saw what she had, I started crying. All I could do was hug her, thank her, and say, "You just don't know," over and over.

And you see, here's the thing.

Janie didn't know how much I had been looking forward to going, about how excited I was. But God did.

God did. And He made sure I will be there.