Top Ten Blessings in the the Middle of a Scary Trial

I am sitting in my husbands hospital room as we wait, and wait, and wait until his stress test that is scheduled for 1:30 pm.  Yesterday afternoon he called me, informing me that he was headed in to the ER for chest pain, side pain and shortness of breath, and that our family doctor had told him to go.  I wanted to be able to drop everything to be at his side.  But my youngest was still at daycare, and my oldest was at a birthday party, and I needed to find someone to watch them  - – - preferably one of my students with a car since I wouldn’t be able to drive them home when I got back, and I had no idea when that would be.

My heart was racing, and my mind was jumbled until I stopped to breathe.

I called one of my senior band students, and she was able to come over to watch the boys. I arranged for her to come over at 5:30, which would give me enough time to pick up Stephen from the birthday party, and get back and frantically half-clean the house, throw a pizza in the oven, and get clothes out for bedtime for the boys.

I also remembered that we would have two cars at the hospital, and I was fully expecting that Randy would be discharged after ruling out heart issues, but knew that he would not be able to drive since he’d been given pain meds.  Strong ones.  So I called my friend Sharon and asked if she would be willing to give me a ride to the hospital, which is 1/2 hour away.  She did.

And this was just the start of blessings that have been pouring out towards us over the last 17 hours. Here are my:

Top Ten Blessings in the Middle of a Scary Trial

1.  Living in the town that I teach in, so I have a lot of students that I can call when I need a babysitter at almost no notice.

2. The friends that I have made being part of Amanda Pelser‘s book club.  They HAVE NOT stopped praying since I sent a quick message yesterday afternoon. (And you might have noticed that I mentioned them in yesterdays post… they have been lifting me up a LOT lately.)

3. My tweeps (twitter peeps).  So many prayers, so many thoughts, so much love. Blanketing me. Seriously.

4. The ride over to the hospital with Sharon – uninterrupted by toddlers (mine) or teenagers (hers) or anyone in between (both of ours).  We have really only seen each other in passing in months, and it was so good to be able to have a complete conversation with her again.  We weren’t thrilled about the reason why, but were both happy for the unexpected “girl time.”

5. Seeing a dear friend for the first time in a LONG time, since life just carried us in different directions and then proceeded to get busy. And busier.

6. Our old pastor coming to be with Randy before I could be there, and him calling me with an update as I was making my way toward the hospital.  So grateful for the family of believers!!  He and Randy were just chatting about ministry things, and one of the nurses said, “You sound like pastors!”  :)

7. Finding an excellent and capable sub for ALL of my classes today, finishing up the sub plans and getting the music out and organized for her before I got home last night.  (Her son is in two of my classes right now and the first thing he asked is if he was in trouble.  Hahaha!)

8.  Forgetting to turn the heat off this morning before I left for the hospital.  Needing to turn back around after dropping Jonathan off at daycare, and taking advantage of the back-tracking by getting a delicious breakfast sandwich and coffee from my favorite bakery.

9. My bestest friend, who has been rallying up prayers, and keeping me calm, and telling me what to expect.  Girl, I could not do this without you.   I am so grateful for your love and support and friendship.  (It is absolutely NO accident that yesterday, before I left to go to the hospital, I opened the mail and found the card you sent me. God is so good.)

10. Being able to see, recognize and bask in all of these blessings, recognizing them for what they are: the loves notes of my Father in Heaven who has ALL THINGS under control.

I am so grateful to be linking up my blessings with Amanda and a bunch of bloggers that I love!

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