Mine Fields of Snowballs

A couple of days ago, I posted this on Facebook: 

I find nothing more humbling or soul-stirring than for someone to tell me they are praying for me. It is the greatest expression of compassion I've ever experienced firsthand.

It seems that lots of people are praying for me (us) these days.  I’ve had several people specifically tell me that they are praying for me.  I can never express enough gratitude for their prayers.  I need them right now and here’s why…

Christmas break was wonderful.  The kids were out of school and away from the inevitable germ pool of daycare for 2 whole weeks.  I was away from the stress of work, we were with our families, we didn’t over-obligate ourselves.  We really just enjoyed the time.  It wasn’t utopian, but it was good.  It was rejuvenating.  It was healing. 

Back-to-school brought back-to-reality.  Within days of getting back to daycare, Nola got sick.  Her perpetual runny nose came back and then her ears started draining.  Her cough got so bad that she wasn’t sleeping well.  I took her to convenient care on Saturday, the 8th.  The doctor there ordered a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia.  Thankfully, it did just that, but I have never seen anything like the way they go about getting a chest x-ray from an infant.  Stripped to the waist, she was lowered into a table with a seat that looked something like a bicycle seat.  Her legs were hanging below her.  I had to hold her hands up in the air while the tech fastened two hard plastic shields on either side of her body to hold her still.  She cried and cried and I wiped tears away for the 5 minutes that it took to get the necessary x-rays.  I couldn’t get to her fast enough when it was over.  I just wanted her out of that contraption.  Fortunately, the x-rays were clear.  She was diagnosed with bronchitis, prescriptions were written and we were sent on our way.

The week that followed that Saturday was crazy. 

• Monday - Rudy got a surprise snow day.  I took Caleb to daycare and Nola stayed home with Rudy for another day of recuperation.  I had a meeting Monday night and didn’t get home until almost 7:00. 
• Tuesday - I had a snow day, so Rudy and I reversed roles.   I had a hair appointment at 5:00 and the roads were fine, so I went.  I didn’t get home until after 7:00.
• Wednesday – I had meeting after school.  When I got out of my meeting, I wasn’t feeling great, but went to run an errand and then picked up the kids from daycare.  By the time I got home, my head was hurting so badly that I could hardly see and was starting to feel nauseous.  I turned the kids over to Rudy and went to bed at 5:00.  At 1 AM, Rudy woke me up and said that Caleb had a fever and extreme ear pain.  I looked in Caleb’s ear with my otoscope and I could see that he had an ear infection and that his tube was either out or coming out.  I got up with Caleb, sent Rudy to bed and e-mailed my principal to let her know I wouldn’t be at school.  I tried to sleep with Caleb, but he was so uncomfortable that he couldn’t sleep, so neither could I.  He literally yelled and cried most of the night.
• Thursday – Rudy took Nola to daycare.  I had Caleb at the ENT office as soon as they opened at 8:30.  The receptionist told me that the doctor wouldn’t be able to see Caleb until 11:45.  I told her that we would stay until he could see us.  While we waited, Caleb was able to sleep for a while, but then woke up screaming because his ear hurt so badly.  Not surprisingly, they called us back to see the doctor shortly after that.  We had been there for over 2 hours.  Dr. Lee took a look in Caleb’s ears and said that he did, indeed, have a unilateral ear infection and that both of his tubes were out and laying in the ear canal.  He removed them, wrote a prescription for Caleb and we left.  We came home and Caleb slept on the couch while I showered and straightened up the house.  I had a doctor appointment scheduled at 3:45.  More on that in another post.
• Friday – Everyone went to school.  Everything was fine.  I worked a little late to get some things wrapped up.  When I left the building at 4:30, I found that I had a flat tire on my car.  I went back in the building, called roadside assistance (thank you, Allstate!), called Rudy and waited for the repair guy to come change my tire.  When I got home, Rudy was showing Kathy around and giving her instructions for the kids for the evening.  We had a date night planned and after the week that we had, we weren’t about to cancel it!  I hurried to get freshened up and we were out the door.  We had a wonderful meal at Mr. B’s steakhouse and then went to JJ’s to listen to some live music and watch the crazy people.  It was the best night I can remember in a long time.

Does that explain why people have been praying for us?  Rudy and I were talking about it one night and he put it quite well:  “It’s like we’re walking along and out of nowhere, someone throws a snowball at us.  Just as we get the snow wiped off, they throw another one…and another one…and sometimes two at a time.”  While I’m grateful that it’s just snowballs and not bullets, I sure could use a break from all of the snowballs.  They are cold and uncomfortable and quite inconvenient. 

In the midst of all of this, a friend of mine posted this video on Facebook.  When I watched it, I cried and then watched it again.  It is so universally true and so appropriate for the life that Rudy and I are living right now.  We recognize that our snowballs could be so much worse, so much more life-altering, so much more dangerous, yet we are still dancing in the mine fields…

BTW – if you like this song, I highly recommend Andrew Peterson’s album, Counting Stars.  I bought it on iTunes and it is wonderful from beginning to end.