So, at the beginning of the summer, Payton and I began the search for a bed. Not that we never appreciated the collapsed beds at school or the strapped-together twin beds or the trundle beds–a bed is always better than the floor! Because we just keep moving and moving some more, Payton looked at sleep number beds. They break down and fit into boxes and we know missionaries who have them over in Papua New Guinea (a great testing place as it’s full of bugs, tropical weather, and all sorts of critters). The only problem in front of us was the $700 price tag and that was only for the mattress! The thought of sleeping on top of that much money was a bit too much to swallow, so we did the next best thing and started perusing craigslist. Payton found a fancier model with the entire bed for $700–so he offered $400, which I thought was too low, but that was basically what we could afford. They said no, but Payton asked them to call us before they moved if they couldn’t sell it. 2 weeks later, I got a random text saying, “We’ll give it to you for $400 if you can pick it up tomorrow.” *Gasp!*
To make a long story short, they were believers, which was neat. They were very happy that their mattress was going to future missionaries. They were a little shocked when I started unzipping the entire thing and deflating things. That was when I realized that I had better move quickly. Turns out they didn’t realize that it broke down because their in-laws had bought it for them and the Sleep Number guys set it up. I had already handed them the cash earlier and proceeded to stash the bed in the car quickly for fear of them reclaiming their easily-movable, much-smaller $2000 bed. We parted in prayer for the unreached and the persecuted church (totally awesome). And Payton and I have slept happily ever after! Truly, my back pain has much diminished since then. Now I don’t wake up feeling like an old man. Can I get an “Amen”?!
Kat and Ray says
Sleep number beds break down and move easy??? Ray's grandparents got us one as a wedding gift, and I've been so sad thinking about how much I'm going to miss it when we move to Asia (shallow, I know, but I have a hard time sleeping, and this bed has really helped!)…Grace, you've given me hope!!! yay! 🙂 That's so cool how God provided for you 🙂