Alison is the most animated, joyful, crazy (in a good way) woman I’ve ever known. She IS the party, and for her the party is all about Jesus.

She’d been serving as a missionary in North Africa for three years when she met Brian at a wedding back stateside, and a slooooow romance began to unfold through phone calls, Skype, and eventually whirlwind visits in exotic locations.

A year later he proposed at a park in Rome, and as onlookers cheered a tearful Alison agreed to moving back to the U.S. and be his wife.

They obviously didn’t want a long engagement, because the wedding was to take place only four months after!

Alison had a lot to do, and since missionaries aren’t exactly rolling in the bucks, she wanted to keep costs as low as possible. Her sweet mom and sisters took care of so much, including preparing ALL of the wedding food, which was to be an enormous, delicious spread of heavy hors d’oeuvres and a full sit down dinner, and Melissa had even offered to bake the wedding cake! 

Of course, she still needed a dress. How do you pick one? Is it like finding a man, where you just know? And they aren’t cheap. Unfortunately, Alison didn’t have any seamstresses in the family, so off to the bridal boutique she went.

She tried on a few that were nice, but not quite right, and then she spotted a gorgeous, dramatically classic lace-backed sheath. It fit like a dream, but the price said “nightmare.” It was sixteen hundred dollars: way over her budget.

She said so, and the sales girl lowered her voice and let Alison in on a secret. “That dress is actually on hold, and someone’s paid half of the full price as a deposit. She never came to pick it up. We have to wait a year before we can let someone else have it, but that year is up in exactly one week. It fits you so perfectly, you wouldn’t even have to have it altered. That alone will save you an extra four to five hundred! This never happens. It’s pretty much a miracle. That dress is meant to be yours.”

So a week later, Alison claimed the wedding gift God had prepared for her, and she paid only $800.00 because some angel had paid the other half a year ago when she and Brian first met. 

Prayer: For us to have hearts of praise and gratitude, starting with me!

*Complete, miraculous healing for J