For several years, my daughter was in shidduchim. When she finally got engaged, our family was overflowing with joy and gratitude. Just one month later, my younger son also got engaged. On one hand, it was an overwhelming brachah — two simchos so close together. But on the other hand, I was filled with worry: how would we possibly come up with the money needed to marry off two children at once?

We were facing the cost of two weddings and all the accompanying household expenses. On top of that, we had promised both sides a significant amount of money to help the young couples purchase apartments — a standard part of shidduch agreements these days. Deep down, we knew we didn’t have the means to fulfill those promises.

We turned to our Rav for guidance, explaining that we didn’t feel it was ethical to commit to money we didn’t have. He told us that if needed, my husband would have to collect — and with that in mind, he said we could move forward with the shidduchim. Of course, this was far from ideal. My husband was not at all comfortable with the idea of collecting, but we felt backed into a corner. There didn’t seem to be another option.

What helped me through that time was the inner work I had been doing for years. I had been learning about emunah and bitachon, slowly internalizing the teachings. I understood that emunah means believing that Hashem controls the world, and bitachon means applying that belief to your own personal life and circumstances.

Almost every day, I would take a few minutes to go over these ideas in my mind: Hashem is here with me. Ayn od milvado. Everything He says in the Torah is true. I reminded myself of the many pesukim in Tehillim that say Hashem saves all those who wait for His salvation. And I would try to hold on to that, even when the situation seemed impossible.

Every day that the yeshuah hadn’t yet come, I would also remind myself to accept that day’s situation. I would tell myself: Hashem is not only with me in the future, when the salvation will finally come — He is with me right now, in this moment. And if He hasn’t sent the salvation yet, it must be because right now is not the right time.

My engaged son would sometimes ask what our plan was — we didn’t even have the funds to buy him basic household necessities. But I kept answering him: "Yeshuas Hashem k’heref ayin." Hashem’s salvation can come in the blink of an eye.

It wasn’t easy. But I kept learning, kept listening to shiurim on bitachon, and tried to live by those words, even when I had no idea how it could possibly work out.

Then, a few months later, we received an unexpected phone call.

It was from an elderly uncle — someone my children would visit every so often, just to keep him company. He was lonely, and they made an effort to check in on him now and then. He told us that he wanted to give a wedding gift to our children and asked if my son could come by his home the next day to pick up a check.

My son went — and couldn’t believe what happened next.

For reasons we may never fully understand, this uncle decided to give him a check large enough to cover everything: the weddings, the household expenses, and even the full apartment contributions we had promised each side.

We were completely shocked. He has his own children, and we never would have imagined such a generous gesture toward us. But he explained that since my children were among the only ones who still made the effort to visit him, he wanted to show his appreciation.

And just like that — literally in the blink of an eye — the yeshuah came.