kiruvwife, you sound like a wonderful, sincere person, and yasher koach for what you sacrificed for Kollel.
Anon, the same goes for you. Its wonderful that you didn’t take the Kollel stipend since you didn’t need it. Others might have said they would take it and live more comfortable or save it or something. That in and of itself is probably a big zechus!
Sometimes, I look at some kollel couples and wonder what they are sacrificing. They are being supported by their parents, including nice cars, vacations, cleaning ladies…it just makes me suspect how noble their sacrifice to learn Torah is. A friend of mine has a husband in Kollel. They sacrifice a lot and work hard. A friend of her husband’s came to borrow money from them because his in-laws were no longer supporting them and his wife still wanted to maintain the same lifestyle (expensive clothing, fancy jewelry, manicures all the time etc)…perhaps they would be better off with a working husband.
The Gedolim Shlita are sure to thank you for all these wonderful ideas that they didn’t come up with on their own.
Joseph, the gedolim are NOT omnicient. Sometimes, it would be helpful if they listen to a myriad of opinions. I am not saying they don’t, just that its not wrong to bring up some good ideas that could be helpful to the klal. Also, sometimes, someone who is too deeply involved may have trouble seeing certain helpful things.