I've driven through three snowstorms lately and have had two
dramatically different experiences.
The first was a white out only about two miles from my house. I was
alone, in a zone where cell service cuts out, and very shaken up. I
couldn't see the sides of the road or what was in front of me. I made
it out safely, but it took a few weeks to recover from the overwhelm.
The other two were less overwhelming - even though the traffic
conditions were worse. One was a combination of blizzard and fog
simultaneously. The other involved my car acting up in extremely cold,
icy conditions.
The difference? Who was with me for the ride. I did not feel
overwhelmed when I had my friend my my side in the ice or my spouse by
my side in the cold. I knew whatever happened, we would get through it
together.
Does life right now feel like a dangerous blizzard? Could it feel more
like a beautiful sleigh ride if we saw God right there next to us, or
asked him to drive? Instea
"It's her first day back to full days," I told the group of moms standing by the flagpole waiting to pick their elementary schoolers up, knowing two out of three of them had no idea what that really meant or what a big deal that was.
For months, our lives had been hijacked by her medical issues...her life hijacked worst of all. The past three months the doctors had her go for half days only because her little body couldn't handle the energy exertion and trying to be "on" all day while she was having so much pain. She needed weekly IVs and a bunch of lab tests run and rerun to see if she needed to be sent to a bigger hospital like the Mayo Clinic. She needed to take about 19 pills a day, a couple of them medications, and others which were supplements and minerals to help with the weight loss and bone loss that were side effects of the medication. She spent most of her afternoons at home resting, taking pills, and eating a ton to try to gain the lost weight
I felt like such a failure.
We were late to the doctor's office for my daughter's appointment,
then our ride was late to pick us up (I can't drive right now because
of my foot injury) and so we sat outside in the sun which added insult
to injury because she was already feeling overheated.
My daughter wasn't happy with how the appointment went, or with
wanting to go in the first place, and thought the treatment didn't
work because she felt worse afterwards.
"But none of those things are your fault!" my friend said. "And what
you did was extraordinary! You got her (with help) to an appointment
2.5 hours away, and got her in there and through her treatment even
with a broken foot! That's like gold medal material! You took her to
the best doctor, to give the treatment the very best shot at working!
You listened compassionately to her as she complained even though you
wanted to complain too. You held her even though you were weary.
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