Answers to prayer

Isn't it cool when God answers prayers? Even prayers that were just nestled somewhere in the back of your heart. Maybe a prayer that you were too tired to even mumble out loud. A small thing that may not have seemed worth the energy. Or something that you just didn't think was even possible for God to take care of. (I know, dumb. But you have to admit you think the same thing sometimes.) When will we learn that this is God we are talking about!

When JB goes on an inpatient rotation, it can be very hard for me. Inpatient means he is seeing patients admitted to the hospital. Their days are usually at least 12 hour with call on the weekend which runs from Saturday morning to Sunday morning with sleep required on Sunday before repeating the cycle on Monday. All said and done, he is usually gone about 95 hours for the week. There are only 168 hours in the week. If he sleeps eight hours a day that is 56 hours and added to the 95 he works that totals 151 hours. That leaves only 17 hours for him to get anything else he needs to get done: eat, dress, shower, shave, drive to work, do the bills, that sort of thing. Not to mention spend time with his family. That just isn't many hours. He barely gets to see the boys, and I often struggle to keep my head above water.

Most of the time these inpatient rotations last two weeks. But this one was going to be three weeks with two Saturdays on call. I was, dreading it.

I had gotten a few bright spots. My brother and his family were going to be here this week. And then the last weekend he was on call my friend Jaime was going to come and visit. But that still left nearly two weeks in the middle that would just be solo time. It's not that I can't physically handle the solo time. It's just that being a single parent is hard. Not to mention the fact that we have no family here and that most of my support staff (wifia and other friends) are gone during the next few weeks as well.

God knew this. But I'm not sure I actually said it to Him. I think I probably just whined it to the wall and to JB and to anyone else who wanted to listen along the way. Three weeks!? Ugh! Three weeks.

And then, yesterday, as Keith and I were talking, a light bulb went off. We started brainstorming and a plan was hatched. AD, who has to get back to work on Monday, could fly home. Keith and Charleigh could stay for another week. Keith was on board. AD was on board. It would give Charleigh more time with her cousins. It would give me someone to talk to. Yipeee!

So now, I have company for an entire extra week, leaving only a few days in the middle to fly solo! How cool is that? Isn't God good to help me with such a minuscule, tiny little thing, that in the grand scheme of life really matters very little.

Love my God.

And that wasn't the only way that he came through this week. There were other things too. Keep reading for some rather big news.

***

My MOPs talk for one. It went well. It really came together. I can't know for sure how it went of course as there is no tangible measure of these things, but the comments were all positive and it seemed well-received. It is my prayer that if the Lord wants this message louder, He will open the doors for me to share it on a bigger platform be it a book or more speaking opportunities, or whatever.

***

Elijah was another answer to prayer. Monday he had a really rough day. It was a day that left me scratching my head, unable to ascertain how else to handle him. My mantra with my boys is "consistency and calmness." It took everything in me on Monday to stay true to that. Was this new behavior indicative of what was to come? How could time-out ten times in a row not change a behavior?

And then yesterday he had a fantastic day. A great day. He was in the best mood. He listened incredibly well. And I felt the Lord whisper in my ear, "You will have bad days. But you will have good days too. Don't forget that the morning brings rejoicing." Amen.

***

But that isn't all, and if you are reading this far into the post, you'll be glad you did. We found out that it is nearly definite as to where we will be going next year for JB's years of payback. And for those of you who have heard from me personally, it is the place that we most hoped. Even better news? It appears that some very good friends will be going with us -- to a location that does NOT deploy their physicians!

We want to get the paperwork in hand before we go counting our chickens. But to make a long story short, we got "unofficial word" that we were going as JB was asked to attend a week long teaching seminar that he would need when we got to this new base, indicating that we are in fact going. We are so thrilled to have a bit more definitive answer to our future! I'll post more on this for sure when the paperwork comes in.

***

Thank you Lord for small miracles. For tiny bits of positive to give sunshine to my days.