Moving into a retirement condo is an adventure all of its own. Since our last assignment was in Pennsylvania, almost a continent away from Alberta, Canada, we had decided to sell most of our earthly goods when we moved home to the West. The result was that, even after we had isolated and purchased our condo beside the blue-green waters of beautiful Bow River, we still had to furnish our new home.

We did it by proceeding slowly and looking for bargains everywhere (not my idea!). Piece by piece, the rooms were slowly being filled. Now only the final piece was lacking—a sofa. It had to exactly fit our unique floor plan. (I learned this from my wife, as you may have surmised by now.)

We found a mossy green sofa at a large and well-known chain store. We both liked it, but my wife, who has to make sure she gets the right one at the best price possible, wasn’t ready to buy. Why? It was still marked at full retail value.

The days and weeks wore on with no sofa. Finally, I began to mutter. I even threatened to go shopping. I would go buy a sofa. This emptiness in our livingroom had to somehow be remedied. But my wife was serene, wholly unmoved by my male mutterings (she knew me—I am not a shopper, let alone a good one!). She knew I really was all mutter and no move..

Then suddenly one day, she said, "Let’s go shopping." Yeh! I was ready.

We went—for the third or fourth time--to the outlet-store version of the original "sighting." Our sofa set had been outletted! Not only was the set drastically reduced, but that day there was an extra discount on all sofa sets—about a thousand dollars less than the original price!

And the unique size and shape? It fit perfectly--with only an appropriate two or three inches to spare! It became our "miracle" sofa—the fruit of my wife’s prayerful and patient listening spirit. We had found exactly--and I do mean exactly--what we were looking for!

". . . in everything by prayer."

-knf