Winning Family Feud

As I posted in my last blog, my family won on Family Feud. Jill Elizabeth Nelson asked if that put us on Easy Street. I’m sure she was completely serious and I will answer as such. 🙂

It was a complete God thing. I remember praying in the car in the parking lot just before we walked onto the studio’s grounds. We asked the Lord to bless our time, to help us act in a way that brought him glory, and–if it was in his plan–that we might win the money. As we were praying, Shaq pulled up to the gate on a motorcycle for an appearance on Jay Leno. The LA Lakers had just won the championship.

We’d already been through one day of auditions and had been reminded again and again that being called back did not mean we were actually going to be on the show. If I’m remembering correctly, we were the 13th team picked that day. We filmed our show right after lunch. Once we won the “big” money, we were ushered into a little room where we signed the legal documents and were deposited outside the studio.

Still, nothing was guaranteed. We wouldn’t receive the money unless the show aired, so we prayed for world peace. Didn’t want breaking news of a war to cover our broadcast! The day finally came, our show aired, we were instant celebrities, rocketed into fame that only a low budget game show can bring. However, when the checks arrived, they were much smaller than we’d anticipated. We’d been taxed as employees! By the time we got that straightened out and a refund arrived, it’d been almost a year since we’d shot the show.

The replacement checks arrived on Feb. 15th, my husband’s birthday. I was admitted into the hospital the next day in premature labor. I spent the next ten weeks on total bedrest. This was a time in our lives when our grocery money was however much I made tutoring math. If not for the money coming when it did…. Well, like I said, it was a God thing!