Saturday, July 10, 2010

Lucky Little Leo and Living Out Loud



In my last blog post I mentioned that that evening I planned to go out with my friend, Traci. I got halfway there when Paul called and said, "Uh - you might want to come home!" That's never good! That's the reason there on the left! The first part of this blog title refers to Sam's middle name - the last time we were home our former pastor, for whom Sam's middle name is given, referred to him as "Little Leo" which I think is cute and makes my alliterative-loving mind smile!

Sam had been balancing (we think) on a concrete block that was holding down one of the tarps over the basement hole. He lost his balance and broke right through the tarp, landing on the dirt on the outside of the wall that's up. So, thankfully it was just a 6 foot drop, rather than the 9 foot drop had he fallen on the other side of the wall. Paul was right down there working when Sam came crashing through.

We took him to the ER in Knoxville, which left me less-than-impressed. He appeared to be ok. In fact, when I got home, Sam was laying on the couch and informed me, "I got hurt!" But he had one spot on this scrape on his head (he must have just grazed the concrete blocks before landing in the dirt) where the skin was gaping a bit. I knew it needed a stitch or least glue. Plus, falling that far, I wanted Sam to be checked out.

I assumed that the hospital would run a full battery of neurological tests, like a ct scan or an MRI or something. They didn't. They just looked at his pupils, had him walk for them, and asked us if we thought he was acting "normal." Finally, we asked about the spot on his head and the nurse said, "Well, I'll give you some neosporin for that." What?! But we thought maybe we had overreacted and didn't see what we thought. So we got home, showered Sam and cleaned up the wound (which the hospital didn't do, either - grrr) and sure enough, he had about an 1/8" spot where the skin was totally gaping open. So we glued it ourselves and stuck a butterfly bandage on.

My heart still sinks to think what could have been. Paul said all he could think about was Sam falling through, but instead of hitting the dirt, bashing his skull on the cement blocks! To say we are thankful is an understatement! That is the second accident we've had now on this project. It had better be the last!

So one of our tarps now has a Sam-shaped hole in it! But last night I was scrapbooking at my friend, Megan's house. Her husband is in the National Guard and has a bunch of discarded Army tarps so he gave me a big one to replace our torn one. I can't believe they throw those things away - they're so sturdy!

I had something unique...interesting...humbling...happen to me Wednesday afternoon. My neighbor, Jenn, is a single mother of 3. Her little boy is over here all the time, playing with my boys - probably thankful for the male company since he only has sisters and mom and grandma at home. I took all 3 kids to VBS last month. I don't know Jenn all that well, but I'm slowly getting to know her. We both work for the city and attend council meetings together so we'll talk about that from time to time.

Well, Jenn has had a rotten summer. They've just had a lot of bad things happen, all on top of each other. This week, her children's half-brother, Jenn's former step-son, was killed in a car accident. It's a real tragedy. He'd just graduated from high school and was all set to enter the Navy. So, Wed. afternoon Jenn stopped by and said, "I have something kind of weird to ask you." Well, with an intro like that, I'm all ears! She went on to talk about all these things that have been happening and asked me to pray for her. I assured her that I would. And then we went on to talk about other things.

As I was standing there, I really felt the Holy Spirit telling me to lead Jenn in prayer right then. But I hate praying out loud! It's just a phobia of mine. I worry about how I sound and I'm aware of awkward pauses - it's just not something I enjoy. I have great, silent conversations with God, but not out-loud ones. As I felt that urging and attempted to beat it down, I suddenly realized that all the kids had run outside. And Sam, whom I'd been trying to get to sleep for the past 4 hours had fallen asleep on his own (clutching a screwdriver - is he a boy or what?!). So, I led Jenn over to the couch and just prayed out loud for her. She was tearful and hugged and thanked me.

I don't know why she asked me to do that. Maybe it's because she knows I go to church. I certainly haven't been around the neighborhood proselytizing. But at any rate, it felt really good to be used of the Lord. Three days later, I'm still kind of in awe over the whole thing!

You know, we have really looked into moving from Swan a number of times. And it's just never been right for one reason or another. Maybe this is why - I don't know!

Yesterday, I made the boring trek up to Clear Lake to pick up the working camp kids. The parents all take turns taking or retrieving the teens throughout the summer. My friend Melissa watched David and Sam for me so I'd have enough room for all the kids and their luggage. It was an uneventful trip, but took most of the day. This was the first time Will worked a family camp and he came home (as I knew he would) urging me that we need to go to Family Camp one of these summers! I suppose we should put that on the docket before Will gets out of high school.

FaithWriters starts again this next week. They've given us such an easy topic this time ("hear") which almost makes me more nervous than if it were something more off the wall, like the last quarters' topics. Plus, I'll be competing at the 3rd level for the first time. But I do have a story in my head. Now I just have to find the time to squeeze it out. This is going to be a very busy week for me.

Well, I need to tackle some of my Saturday chores, like cooking tomorrow's lunch and getting our Sunday clothes ready. Paul, Will, and Ben have been gone for about 6 hrs, running a number of errands. He said they didn't buy the car at the auction, so I don't know if that means it wasn't worth it or if they were outbid. I'll try to pop in later next week...

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