Some days are better than others.
This was my post on FaceBook yesterday and I thought I'd expound a little for you. At first the day sounded like a disjointed country song... (even if it is actually a U2 song quote)... but I added the good parts in italics so we could see them. It took me a day to see all the good stuff. - Dee's Grandma passed away last week. She lived a good long life and it was not unexpected, still his Grandma passed away. We were able to see her over Thanksgiving. She made a surprising connection with our little Ellie that was precious for me to see. The funeral is tomorrow in Utah so he made arrangements to leave with his brother yesterday and drive out returning Sunday. The weather has been horrible and I was so worried they'd be caught in the storm, but they made it ahead of the storm - no stopping for snow at all.
- He was already away on business when he found out so he came home for one night this week and left again the next day. This is the first and last week it hasn't been packed with extracurricular activities for the kids. Although it's busy, it's not so busy I have to pick which place to be, because I can't be two places at once.
- At work he is launching a new medicine soon. What does this mean? It means additional travel, it means study at home, it means tests to take and pass, it means work mode. Not necessarily a bad thing when expected, but all consuming. He planned on taking his last big test before he left so he didn't have to worry about work while he was with family. More on this in a minute.
- We've had incredible weather here until a couple days ago. Again, not unexpected. Before he left yesterday morning he cleaned out the fireplace from the night before and filled our woodpile. Love that man! He dumped the ashes on our burn pile, which was pretty high. It caught fire immediately. I'm talking 4 foot flames. Glad he didn't throw the ashes into the trash! I went out to turn the hose on (just in case) and realize the pipe had a crack in it from the freeze the night before. Not a big one, just a leak. However, Dee was going out of town and wanted to fix it before it got worse. He turned the nozzle and a 4 foot high spout of water shot from the pipe not too far from the flames. Irony. Again, of all pipes to break that was the best one. Not by the house, no risk of flooding. Glad it happened before he left and not after, also. He was able to fix it and the burn pile was no hazard after the initial flames settled down.
- The kicker of the day, however, was when he sat down to prepare for his test. He was checking his email and there was a new one from work. It basically said there would be a conference call tomorrow (this morning) to announce a layoff and who would be affected. Not. Again. Sick. Angry. Frustrated. Scared. Unsure. Numb. Now, we all know what a worrier I am. On the outside I was just fine and on the inside all this was happening. As Bono so simply stated, "Some days are better than others." Dee still had to leave. Time would not go any faster or slower. All we could do - again - was pray. After Dee left, after the fires were out and the floods had stopped I fell to my knees and prayed. I started with counting blessings which took a while because it's hard to do that when you're angry. After a while the pleading came and the hope for understanding until I was through saying what was filling my heart and mind. When I stopped and listened I was filled with peace. I knew it would be okay, whatever "IT" was. God has a plan.
