The Promise

Tuesday morning- woke up at 5:30. Hurry to pack last minute items, eat breakfast, and put some thing in ice chest. Load my van, and then wake the kiddos up. Get them dressed and fed, and drop Aidan off at a friends house for the day. (him and Tim are leaving Wednesday) Go to my mom's house. Unload my van into her van. Move car seats and kids. On the road by 8:30, knowing we have to make it by 8PM to Ronald McDonald House. Drive starts out rough and dreary. Rain, and Brooke not feeling well. Then Chandler decides today is not a good day for him to travel. Screaming and crying on and off until we hit Dubois. Quick stop at our usual Eat and Park for lunch. Turns into an hour and 15 minute stop, because their grill was down. We did get free coffee and cookies! Back on road where Brooke manages to fall asleep. Poor Chandler continues to cry off and on. Make it to NJ and make a stop at Walmart after realizing we left the stroller in my van. :( Get back in van with tired children and mommy's. 1 ½ left! And it is 5PM. Just praying we do not hit very much NY traffic.

As we near the city, I get the same familiar feeling in my stomach. The knot! I am not a fan of NYC. In fact, I am not a city girl at all! Please just give me the quiet country, or Canton. :) Each time I get close to NYC, my tummy gets a lump in it. I have this desire to just turn the car around and head home. Of course I never do, I take a deep breath and keep driving. Thankfully, we drive very smoothly through city and out to the Long Island Bridge. As we start to cross the bridge, I call out, “Look at the Rainbow!” There from the gray clouds straight down to the water was a very thick, vibrant rainbow. As I quickly glanced at it, I was reminded of God's Promise. I thought of the crazy day, and remembered life is crazy! But with God bearable. We have to do many things we just do not want to do, but we survive.

As we neared RMH our GPS started giving a different rout than normal. I looked around and was able to figure out where we were. I felt a peace and it felt a little like home. I recognized businesses and a few houses. We made it! And it was 7PM! Then began the chasing a 1 year old while trying to check in, feeding all dinner, unloading the car and loading the fridge and room. Of course, both kids were hyped up and a little crazy! But everyone finally settled in.

I stood last night looking at the board of people staying at RMH. Many of them from all over the US. And a family from Russia, one from the Philippians, and then I saw Haiti. Two families from Haiti staying right next door to us. I thought of how God has a way of connecting us all even when we are hundreds and thousands of miles from our homes. How thankful I am for a place like RMH. A safe home away from home.

A picture in our room shows a little girl sitting in a window seat looking out the window. She is expecting something or someone. She waiting on the unexpected. Waiting on a promise. We are too are looking out the window. We are not sure what to expect or who. We are praying the pretesting goes well. We have role played and talked about the “Smoke Mask”. She keeps saying “I am going to be brave.” I keep telling her she already is!

Wednesday- I am adding today on here because I did not get this posted earlier.  We went to pretesting.  Of course I talked until I was blue in the face about what would happen at the pretesting.  Well of course, even with Miss Michelle there and her favorite Princess Look and Find...I had to hold her down for the blood test and blood pressure.  The nurse after said, "Can we still be friends?"  And Brooke told her "Oh yes."  She never is mean, she is just scared.  Poor thing!  We are resting at RMH and going to make crafts to decorate her room.  

Surgery is at 7:30 AM  and is around a 4 hour surgery.  I am not sure how quick I can post, but will do my best.  We found out she has to lay completely flat on her back for a full 24 hours after surgery!  Should be fun!  We are making butterflies and pictures to hang from the ceiling.  So thankful for all the prayers and support!