Day 3 of the Writing Challenge –

As they say (whoever they are) better late than never. So Day 3 of the Writing Challenge is

Today, we’ll be mixing it up by searching our personal store of memories for the whimsical and the strange. In all your life, what is the strangest thing you have ever witnessed? Use the questions below to craft a scene that helps your reader visualize what happened and how it affected you: was anyone else around to witness it too? what was your immediate reaction? in retrospect, is there anything you learned from this experience?

As I think about my life I wouldn’t call the things I remember as strange but more a confirmation of how the Lord has worked in our lives time and time again.

I remember when our baby boy, Royce was dying. We had gotten the call from the hospital that there wasn’t anything more they could do for him. We were told he probably wouldn’t live for another 25 minutes. This was hard because we lived 45 minutes from the hospital but we headed to the hospital. When we arrived at the hospital, Ron and I rushed in to the NICU unit and my mom parked the car. We arrived at change of shift and was told we couldn’t come in, we explained the doctor had called us and they said to come right in. We gowned up and went in and stood by our sweet little boy, talking to him and praying. He was still with us! My mom was able to get parked, walk into the hospital and gown up and stand with us. My mom asked me to tell Ron to ask the Chaplain (we were all standing around him) and the Chaplain said “Lord God Almighty…” and our little Royce breathed his last breath!!! We were with him…more than an hour had passed since the phone call…was it strange? Nope I like to think of it as the Lord knew that we only had a few hours with our precious baby but those last few minutes were the best!! And we are forever grateful for them. Even 44 years later!!!

Another “strange” event was when we were stationed in the Netherlands and we got word that Ron’s dad’s cancer had returned. The events that needed to happen were for Ron to get assistance through the Red Cross, drive from outside of Amsterdam to Frankfurt, fly for three days from Frankfurt to London to McGuire AFB, drove to Philadelphia flew to Kansas City, MO then on to Seattle where we then had to drive 3 hours to Blaine. Now add in, no sleep for the adults, a baby who had a seizure on a plane (parents didn’t even know what was going on), a pediatrician who never said a word on the plane but afterwards gave us a piece of paper with what he observed (he told us we did everything we needed to do except maybe give Jamie some orange juice). After being picked up in Seattle we made our way to Madigan Army Hospital. The Pediatric doctor treating Jamie asked if the doctor had a beard…Ron said no but he had heard the man tell someone else he had just shaved it off. The doctor on the airplane was one of the doctor’s that the ER doctor trained under. How cool is that? After four hours we were released…Jamie had pneumonia, had had a febrile seizure and they were going to admit him. We pleaded our case and the doctor released him with the understanding that if Jamie had another seizure we would get him to the hospital ASAP. We then made our way to Blaine, which was now a four hour drive.

That Seattle trip had God working overtime. I was able to find a job to pay for my ticket back to the Netherlands, not usual for a company to hire you when they know it’s only for three weeks. Due to the seriousness of Pete’s (Ron’s dad) health Ron put in for a humanitarian reassignment upon our return to the Netherlands. Initially we were told (on December 2) that it would be six months to a year before we will get a reply and more than likely it will be denied. God did not disappoint!!! On December 19th Ron got word to go to CBPO ~ it was important. We happened to be in the little base exchange. Ron headed over to see Paul and I finished checking out…we were buying Christmas gifts!! It took me about 15 minutes to make it over there, when I walked in Paul said “I don’t know how you did it but y’all are going home. All I ask is that you wait till after January 1st.” Not a problem, we wanted to celebrate Christmas with our friends and AF family. January 13, 1979 we moved to Tacoma, McChord AFB…we were able to stateside and within traveling distance of Ron’s parents for just over a year before Pete passed away. Only by God could this have all happened.

These events happened over 40 years ago yet today the lessons learned is still just as important as ever…no matter what or how we think things are going or not going…and that God is always in control and He also always has a plan for us. We may not understand the plan but it is all in His plan and His plans for us are for our good.

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How do you handle change?
Do you think life is just a strange thing piled on top of another strange thing?
Or do you think there is an order, a plan to how your life has gone and continues to go?