Surviving the Bumps in the Road
Sometimes the bumps in the road, the tough times of our lives feel like a huge weight we drag behind us. We struggle to see the positives and wonder if we will ever get out of the difficulty. I have experienced a number of huge bumps. I wondered if the puzzle pieces of my life really could fit together to form a beautiful picture. I realize I am not alone in this feeling. Everyone experiences these situations at various times in their lives. They might be financial, health issues, relationship problems or a combination of things.
Let me share a story of one of those tough moments in my life. My husband, almost one year old daughter and I had spent Christmas with my family and now arrived at his family for the rest of our Christmas vacation from our teaching jobs in an isolated Northern Saskatchewan community. My mother-in-law offered to babysit so Brian and I could celebrate New Year’s Eve with some of his friends. We both looked forward to this date but as the afternoon eased its way into the evening Lori started coughing more. Her first cold, I thought and tried to comfort her the best I knew how as a young mom.
She fell asleep and I put her to bed, but her breathing just did not seem right. We checked on her a number of times and she continued to stay asleep but her breathing got worse. Finally we decided we needed to cancel our plans and take her to the nearest hospital, thirty miles away.
We rang in the New Year with the doctor admitting our baby to the hospital with croup. I had never even heard of this but I learned quickly that the safest place for my little one was in the oxygen tent with medical staff close by to help. Hospital regulations prohibited parents from staying and with a heavy heart we left the hospital.
The next day we returned to find our daughter so much better and I hoped the doctor would let us take her home but he refused, unconvinced the worst had passed. Lori hated to stay in the hospital and I hated to leave her there but felt I had no choice. I prayed for God to heal her. I begged to take her home. The answer seemed to be wait.
Returning the next day, Lori had improved even more but once again the doctor refused to sign her release. The report from the night before left me stunned. The nurses had to call the doctor in the middle of the night as my baby’s condition deteriorated. He came and also ran out of options. The nurse said his words were, “I sure hope she has praying parents. There’s nothing I can do. It’s too risky to transfer her to a larger hospital.”
A few days later and a transfer to a large hospital to double check that the worst had indeed passed and we were able to take out baby out of the hospital. We celebrated her first birthday at my Grandmother’s home in Saskatoon before flying to our own home in the far north of our province. I look back at the pictures of her birthday celebration and see the drawn face of my little one and realize that God provided a miracle which kept her in our lives.
We each have a story. We all have puzzle pieces, tough pieces in our lives that we do not want or know how we will survive. Often it is not until we look back and see how God has worked, protected, provided that we begin to have a flicker of hope and a better understanding that only God can provide the answer.
What story or stories do you have about how God has worked to put the tough pieces together to form part of the picture of your life?
Posted: October 5th, 2017 under adventure, puzzle pieces of life, Storytelling.