Print edition: 
KANSAS CITY, Mo. —Unexpected blessings, the ones birthed from trials and tribulations — unemployment, financial woes, health challenges — are often the most precious.
Some inspirational stories are shared here:
Renewal and faith
Janice Gaulke's Overland Park, Kan., family was down to one senile dachshund, Cricket. She thought about rescuing an adult dog.
On a visit to the vet with Cricket, Gaulke met a dog named Deke, who had been boarded when his owner went to the hospital. The owner died, and her family was unable to take the dog. Deke was an orphan.
"Deke was exactly the size and shape and sort of smallish black dog that I had secretly wanted since I was a girl," Gaulke said. "He had bright eyes and a happy tail and a big smile," and most important, he and Cricket got along.
So Deke went from living in an apartment to a house with a large backyard that opens to Gaulke's brother's yard. His dog Daisy visits daily. Gaulke's mom sits with Deke during the day, and Gaulke's nephew pets him in the evening. Deke plays with Daisy and shares snacks and toys with Cricket.
"Mom found a renewed interest in sewing as she outfitted Deke with a new wardrobe of bandannas," Gaulke said. "And I got a little face waiting for me in the front window and a happy little dog doing a happy dance when I come in the door."
Jack Mandelbaum, a Holocaust survivor, considers it a blessing to have lived and to reside in this country.
"I am blessed every day, and I thank God and all the American people that made it possible," said Mandelbaum, now living in Florida.
Gerardo Mena, a decorated Iraqi Freedom veteran living in Columbia, Mo., took a poetry class and started writing poetry after completing his enlistment. His blessing? Getting his first poem published and winning the 2010 War Poetry contest sponsored by Winning Writers.
"I now have 10 poems that are published or are forthcoming this year in six different journals," he said.
Grandbabies are almost always a blessing. The first grandchild of Zulfiqar Ali Malik of Overland Park, Kan., "is the greatest recent blessing to me."
"I am so happy to see Zayna (which means beautiful) among the new generation of Muslims," he said. "I wish and pray that the new generation will face less hardship, prejudice, discrimination and hostility in American society."
Through trials and tribulations
The last two years have been rough for Donna Enloe of Overland Park. Her brother and his girlfriend were in a car wreck that took the girlfriend's life. Enloe and her husband, Carl, unexpectedly lost friends and family, and their sons were having difficult times.
Christmas was approaching, but Enloe concedes she was not in the mood for what should be a happy time of year.
Running a sales business out of her home, she regularly recycles boxes and packing peanuts at a FedEx store.
One day, the store manager told her that the last time she had left items, three ceramic angels had been among her peanuts. Enloe told her they were not hers and had no idea how they got there.
"The largest one had blond honey hair like me, and she was holding a gray-striped cat," she said. "I have two gray cats, one striped.
"Then the other two smaller ones had beautiful printed quotes on their skirts, kind of like a message from God telling me that everything was going to be all right and to trust him and stop worrying."
Mary McCullagh of Roeland Park, Kan., said her blessing truly was in disguise when the family's house was destroyed by fire.
They stayed with family and at a hotel and then found a house to rent. The family felt displaced, McCullagh said.
But right after the fire, clothing and other items started to arrive from the children's school and the family's church. A department store took 30 percent off their bill, "and the customer behind us in line even gave us $50 to use toward the clothing."
"Relatives and friends from all around the country reached out to us during this difficult time. The students and families from our school, St. Agnes, presented our family a check for over $3,000.
"I even had old friends from my high school in St. Louis send gift cards, and ladies I have never even met from Catholic Charities made quilts for my two children."
With this help and insurance money, the family bought a house in Roeland Park less than five minutes from church and school.
"We are so happy living where we are right now," McCullagh said. "We would never wish upon anyone for someone's house to burn down, but in our case it was a true blessing of God."
Harriet Siess's blessing is what didn't happen. The Overland Park grandmother said her grandson and a friend were returning to the University of Kansas after their winter break when their car hit a patch of black ice.
"In a split second the car slid off the road, went airborne, rolling over and over down an embankment of approximately 65 feet," she said. "His windows were breaking, and everything was flying out of the car.
"The only way the car stopped rolling was it smashed into a tree. It was God's miracle that they both got out of the car with a few scratches but no serious injuries. The police could not believe anyone would survive this."
From health challenges
Many people said that through the pain and suffering of health problems, they have been blessed with closer relationships to family, friends and God and have learned many life lessons.
Carol Martin's husband was diagnosed with cancer six years ago, and the couple had another year together they didn't expect.
Two years ago, friends were faced with a similar situation, only it was the wife who had cancer. She lived another year.
"My prayer for this couple was for the strength they needed to face this," said Martin of Independence. "I will not lie, watching them go through this was very hard since it was so familiar , and I did not want for anyone else to experience this kind of pain and loss."
Now as time has passed the two surviving spouses have found love and companionship. With each other.
"Only those who have lost a spouse and love of their life can understand the many feelings that are involved in our relationship," Martin said. "Because we loved our spouses so much we are learning to love each other with a great appreciation for what we have lost and what we are finding in each other."
Kathy Kratofil of Belton, Mo., was an avid runner until she was diagnosed in 1987 with a liver disease for which there was no cure.
After the doctors did all they could, she was placed on the transplant list a year ago and was getting sicker every day.
On Oct. 10, her priest performed the sacrament of anointing of the sick. The next morning, she received a call that a liver was available.
The operation went perfectly, and she came home from the hospital on her husband's 60th birthday.
"I was surprised with a coming-home greeting from the Belton Fire Department, where my son is a captain," she said. "All horns and sirens were sounded and (I received) many hugs from the guys.
"I am blessed because I am the guardian of my donor's liver. God blessed me with a second chance. I now have my life back."
With a diagnosis of stage-four colon cancer, Shanie Stoll, a mother of three from Lee's Summit, Mo., said she has been enveloped with the love and kindness of her church family.
Members have brought meals, transported her to the doctor and her children to their activities, sat in the waiting room during her surgeries, sent cards and most of all prayed.
A year ago she and another survivor started a cancer support group at her church, Lee's Summit United Methodist.
"How long I will be here, I do not know," Stoll said. "What I do know is that I have been truly blessed."
Blessings from unemployment
John Gallagher of Blue Springs, Mo., said he was a successful businessman when he lost his job in 2002. He wasn't able to find another good job until 2005.
But then he became ill and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. He recovered enough to return to work, only to be laid off.
In 2007 he found another job, but his health was deteriorating. He applied for disability, but his health care provider turned him down for long-term disability, he said.
That's when his wife, Diana, got a second job that provided medical benefits. She took on extra work on weekends and started to bring in more money than they had ever had.
"My wife's career took off," he said. "She made so much money that she got us out of debt completely, including paying our house off."
Richard Crandon was out of work, almost out of savings and ineligible for unemployment benefits. He was "near to panic" with bills piling up.
He received a check for $500 from the estate of a family member who had died, and in the envelope was information on how to go online to check for unclaimed property in Kansas. He did, remembering he had bought a company's stock many years ago. He expected maybe $50. The amount of the unclaimed property was $3,136.
"It came just in time to keep us having our phones and electricity turned off and keep us in a home," said Crandon, formerly of Kansas City now living in Minnesota. "This was truly Allah working in his way to help those in need."
Loree Gross of Overland Park said her blessing began a number of years ago when her husband, Kenyon, had been unemployed for two years. That's when the couple learned that "God is the one source."
"The solution we saw in all this re-education was to appreciate the flow of prosperity throughout the God-created universe.
"We became thankful that we could pay a bill, thankful when someone or some company agreed to wait a few days. We learned patience, prayer and trust, and however tentatively, they replaced fear, anxiety and all feeling that a particular application for work 'should have been' answered positively."
Since then she has been diagnosed with Parkinson's. And while they both were in relatively good health, the couple decided to make a Baha'i pilgrimage this year to places in Israel connected to the faith's founder.
"This was a great blessing."
When her job was eliminated in 2006, Connie Humiston of Shawnee, Kan., scoffed at people who said it was tough finding work after the age of 40. She was 52.
After sending out more than 600 applications in two years, she was no longer scoffing. She sought peace and discovered spirituality by changing her thoughts through "the law of attraction, understanding that everything in the universe is energy, and we co-create our lives."
"Unemployment has turned out to be one of my biggest blessings," she said. "I have transformed from my lil' ol' me-justifying-blaming-old-self into my own life coach/spiritual teacher — just as everyone is, although they may not yet recognize it."
