For most of the last decade, I measured my family’s financial progress based on how well we moved through Dave Ramsey’s baby steps. Since we planted a church five years ago, the progress was slow, but we rejoiced in every step towards greater financial freedom. Divine providence brought that progress to a halt over the last eighteen months. Each year we opted for a lower level of health insurance instead paying more for a higher premium. Then in April 2013 we welcomed our third daughter. This priceless gift from God who brightens our day brought with her something we had not experienced with the birth of our first daughter—crippling medical bills. Each dreaded trip to the mailbox brought more bad news and the final price tag meant we would be paying doctors and hospitals for over a year.  We started cutting back in places we never thought we could cut back, and all the extra money going on the mortgage and into savings started going towards medical bills. With a new year came another premium increase and the reset of our deductible. In the first four months of 2014, I had walking pneumonia, an unexpected surgery, and one of the girls made a trip to the Emergency Room. In just over a year we received over $10,000 in medical bills.