Priceless Precious Perspective

    So I'm at work and my phone rings (not suppose to answer cell phone at work), it's my grandmother.  She has just picked Rebecca up that morning to spend a couple of days with her while she's on Easter break.  My grandmother lives on the Northshore.  I figure if she really needs me, she will call work.  2 seconds later . . . 'Jennifer, Line 1!'  Oh no . . . something is wrong, I think!  I excuse myself from my patient and answer the phone.
    Mawmaw says, 'Rebecca's OK, she got a candy stuck in her throat and the paramedics are here!  She's breathing fine!'
    I asked, 'Did she stop breathing or lose consciousness'.  Thankfully the answer was 'no'!

   Long story short . . . no one, even now, was sure whether the butterscotch candy was stuck in her windpipe (trachea) or her esophagus.  David picked up Christian from nursey and he headed toward the Northshore as I left work and headed over as well.  We meet Mawmaw, Aunt Cheryl and Rebecca at the hospital ER . . . Rebecca thinks the candy came up in the car while pulling into the ER parking lot.  But just to make sure we admitted her and a CAT scan was done to confirm the candy was gone.

    Does this not put everything in PERSPECTIVE for you?  Our children are PRECIOUS and should never be taken for granted.  God gave us these children.  Trials like these really build character, these trials can also bring out your fears and pessimistic qualities.  I am so undescribably thankful and grateful that our God was protecting Rebecca and gave us many more days with 'my present from God' (phrase I used to explain how special she is when she was a little girl).  I can't imagine how expensive that little butterscotch candy will be, but to me my daughter is PRICELESS!

...to the death by a Poncho

This is how my last couple of weeks have gone!  I will set the story up for you . . . so the BIG storm is coming with wind and rain . . . I have no gutters at the moment because they were being replaced . . . my PRECIOUS new seedlings sit right under the roof line . . . I get home at 6 pm . . . it's starting to drizzle already . . . I search the garage for a tarp and all I come up with is a poncho . . . I arm myself with scissors, the poncho, electrical tape and more stakes . . . I manage to cover my zucchini, wax bean and sunflower seedlings with the poncho cut just right which is taped to the stakes.  The gusts are so bad that David sends me and the kids to the bathroom during the tornado warning/watch.  We use are time wisely . . . Christian gets bathed and Rebecca gets her toenails clipped.  The next morning, I creep to the backyard with apprehension at what I may find and to my dismay . . . the downpour of rain off the roof has not affected my PRECIOUS plants, but . . . the dreaded poncho has come loose and whipped my wax beans to their death. 

Well, at least the poncho thought it had won, but no . . . I never give up on PRECIOUS life . . . I stand those puppies up and pile dirt around the weak stems that are nearly severed, in hope that they will mend themselves back to wholeness.  Low and behold, 2 of my wax beans plants, out of the 4 left for dead, are surviving.  Praise God!

This goes to show . . . even when you put a lot of effort into something you think is the right thing to do and it doesn't turn out the way you want or thought it should be . . . it probably was not God's will to begin with.  So be careful what you focus all of your time and energy on, pray and ask God if what you are doing is what He wants you to do.  If I would have really thought about it a little more, instead of becoming frantic about covering the plants, I would have realized that my PRECIOUS seedlings had been well rooted for 2 wks and the downpour would have soaked them heavily, but would not have beheaded them like the evil poncho.

Happy Spring!  Death turned into Life!!!!