Accidentally in Love

Well, I got more sleep last night than I did the night I was in the hospital with Steve. But the nature of his surgery requires frequent trips to the bathroom so we were up every couple hours and it felt like having a newborn. Steve's feeling a tad better now that he can rest at home, but he's still in a considerable amount of pain. It's just going to take time. I'm praying that the urologist will see him first thing tomorrow, but in reality, I know it probably will be late tomorrow or even later in the week. I'll keep you posted.

I did want to tell you how cool the Lord was to us this weekend...it just seemed that He provided over and over. The first thing was that we have a family wedding to attend next weekend. The problem was that it was out of town about 5 hours away and with gas prices going through the roof, we really didn't have the money to spend. But because it was family, I really felt like we should attend. I just prayed that God would provide. Well...due to this kidney stone and surgery, there is no way Steve can go on a 5 hour (one way) trip. Not exactly the answer I expected, but an answer nonetheless.

I had gone straight from work to scrapbooking on Friday night and when Steve called, I went straight home to get him and he was waiting in the garage for me, so I didn't even get to go in. I was dressed in jeans, a sweater and dress shoes from work. Not exactly comfortable to spend the night in the hospital in. Well, lucky for me, I had brought home my work out clothes which included a much more comfortable sports bra, lounge pants and t-shirt, not to mention socks and tennis shoes. I had only worked out once this past week, so they were even clean! So after Steve got settled in a room, I went down and got them and relaxed as much as I could.

I was worried about what I would do while waiting for them to see him, take him up to his room and while in surgery. Again, I'd just bought a new book on Wednesday after church that I had taken to work to read and it was still in my work bag, so again, God provided something to keep me busy.

Most of you know that the end of the month is the tightest financially being that I only get paid once a month and so neither Steve or I usually have any cash on us. However, believe it or not, Steve had stopped at the ATM before going to the bowling alley and so he had just enough cash in his wallet. Combined with the few dollars I had, there was just enough for me to have breakfast, lunch and dinner at the hospital.

When I picked Jenna up from Rach yesterday, I had nothing for her to do at the hospital, so we stopped at Walgreens to get her a coloring book and crayons. When I got back in the car, I noticed she'd left her Nintendo DS in the van at some point and so she had that (it was still charged!) so she had something to keep her busy.

Speaking of picking up Jenna...Rach had to be in town at 11:45 yesterday, so it would have been ideal if I could leave the hospital at 11:20 and pick her up while Steve was in surgery so I could be back by the time it was over and get the call from the doctor. Because there is no set schedule on the weekends, they just take patients into surgery as they are able depending on who is there first and who is the most pressing. The likelihood that all things would come together at just the right time was going to be nil. However, they came up to get him at 10:40 and allowed me to go down to the surgical holding area with him. I had to wait for the anesthesiologist to show up so I could answer his questions and when he was done I could stay or go. I looked at the clock and it was 11:20. So, God again provided so that I could leave and pick up Jenna. I wasn't even gone and hour and we had lunch and everything and still had 30 minutes to spare before the doctor called after surgery!

Lucky (if there's such a thing) for us, Rachel was scrapbooking with me on Friday night, so she was right there when I got the call and headed for home so I could drop Jenna off to stay the night. I am so thankful for friends like her and David making themselves available during times of need. We have no other friends that we would have been able to drop her off with that are in the area. Just another one of the Lord's provisions for us.

Let's see...on our way there, it was raining so much in the hill I could barely see. I prayed that God would just give the rain a short break until we could make it to the hospital. About 3 minutes later, the rain completely stopped and was still stopped when we arrived.

Last night, I went out before Steve was discharged to get his prescriptions filled and get Jenna and I some dinner. Well, 6 pharmacies later, I finally found one that was opened past 6pm. Even though it was 6:45 and they closed at 7pm, the Belle Meade Kroger had pity on me and filled all three RXs by 7pm. I made it back to the hospital 30 minutes before the Dairy Queen (in the hospital) closed. Jenna was really wanting some ice cream to go with her dinner, but I had only $9 in cash in my pocket and they didn't take check cards. So, all I got her was a cheeseburger, myself a combo and figured she could eat my fries and share my drink. The total came to $8. But before we left, the lady at DQ said she was going to give Jenna a kids drink at no charge just because she was so cute. While we were waiting on our meals to come out, the guy in front of us ordered a big chocolate ice cream thing with chocolate and brownies all over it. It looked SO good, but I just didn't have the cash for it and I wasn't going to go to the ATM for $3 since we were running so behind. By the time the meal came out, the lady handed Jenna the ice cream again, at no charge. Apparently, the guy had only had a card himself and he just returned the ice cream to the counter. Never opened it or anything. The lady had overheard Jenna begging for ice cream and rather than throw the ice cream away, just gave it to us. There was more than enough so she gave us two spoons and we enjoyed our dessert.

I'm sure no one else really cares as much about all this as I do, but it just seemed that time and time again, God provided in sometimes, the smallest of ways. During such a stressful time, it was wonderful to see God's provision...