Road Trip

This was from Wednesday, April 26, 2006

This morning when I crawled out of bed I never would have imagined what my day had in store. I know what was planned: drop off kids at school, preschool field trip, relay for life team meeting, mom’s group, pick up kids from school, make supper, baseball practice and somewhere in there get the 15 loads of laundry finished…at least enough so Eric had clothes for his flight tomorrow. My first clue that the day wasn’t going as planned was pulling onto Barry street just blocks away from a friend’s house where I pick up her preschooler and carpool to school. The oil check gage lights were flashing at me and the oil gage showed just below 0. I borrowed my friend’s car, got the kids to preschool, stopped at home, grabbed some oil and filled the car with oil. Made it to the preschool field trip an hour late. When we finally stopped at home on our way to the next event of the day I quickly listened to the messages. My day took a drastic turn when in disbelief I listened to my sister’s solemn voice begging to reach me. She explained that she had just received a phone call that Grandpa had suddenly died of a heart attack. The reality of what she was telling me was hard to swallow. A man who had been a rock in my life for 32 years was now gone...suddenly. It was proof that no matter how I plan my day, any day for that matter, God is the one who is truly in charge and HIS plans will always come first. Long story short, my brilliant husband fixed the oil issues, found some kind of U joint (totally a God thing...) something or another that was going out and fixed it. He informed me that the problem would have left us stranded on the road. Eric cancelled his trips for Thursday and Friday and I frantically through together 5 suitcases full of dirty laundry. We got on the road by supper time and by 3:30 am we were pulling into my parent's driveway in Kansas. Thoroughly exhausted we realized that it was the wee early hours of April 27 and it was Lucy's birthday. Although we were trying to get them back to sleep after transferring to the house from the car, I decided to sing Lucy Happy Birthday, throwing her into an exicted wake. Praising God tonight that we made it to Kansas safely (especially after almost being squished into a bridge by a semi at Christmas), Eric was not out of town when the call came in, and coffee is available 24/7.