miracles do happen

it's not that strange, really.

Even though he said he wasn't going to pay a dime for anything beyond child support, even though he told Max not to ask him for anything else, my ex-husband is coming through.

It looks like Max is going to get to go to Israel with his friends after all.

Nobody was more surprised than Max. I picked him up at Hebrew school and said "Max, your dad asked that you please call him."

"Does he know about the grant?"

"Yes. I sent him a text a few minutes ago, and he texted me back as I pulled into the parking lot just now. I was going to ask you if you wanted to tell him, but then I just sne thim a text anyway."

Five minutes later, Max was asking me "why?"

I had the answer. "He'd rather you do stuff without him having to pay for it. But he also loves you, and he doesn't want you to be sad."

"That makes sense," Max said.

"I'm so happy for you."

"He said he would have to noodle it over and he'd get back to me."

"Well, I think that is so you don't take it for granted. It's a lot of money. He wouldn't say that and then tell you tomorrow that he thought about it and the answer is no. Maybe he is going to give you some of your trust fund money early."

"I have no idea what you are talking about, Mom."

"That's okay, Max. Never mind."

I had Max call his father back from home to explain about the waiting list, and that we won't know that he hasn't got the grant for another couple of weeks.

Eliot's respose was to explain how he was going to finance his portion of the trip.

"He's says he's going to have to make that much less of an investment in my real estate portfolio this year," Max repeated to us.

"That's pretty much what I expected," I said. "Congratulations, Max."

So grateful.