Life is terribly unpredictable!

Yesterday is gone, and yet it seems as if time is standing still.  The day started and went about as usual.  But when evening came, it's a completely other story.

Last week Tuesday our pregnant daughter went to the hospital thinking it might be time for her to deliver their baby.  This would make it about a month early.  She doesn't feel contractions, doesn't know she's having one unless she's on a monitor that shows she having a contraction.  

It's kind of scary, really, when you stop and think about it.  All at once she would feel a need to push and have the baby wherever she happened to be.  I know that's part of the reason she went to doctor  prematurely.

Since she had been to the doctor Tuesday she was thinking about cancelling her regular Thursday appointment.  But when it came down to the wire, she decided to keep the appointment since she still felt like she could be having contractions.  The doctor kept sending her home.   Said she was only 1 cm. dilated.

Tuesday evening (yesterday) I went to a class I'm attending at our church every week for twelve weeks.  It sounds so neat in that by taking the class we will learn to go through some of our past pain and return to joy we were born to nourish.  

My hubby came and interrupted me...said our daughter was at the hospital and we needed to get the kids and bring them to our house.  I wasn't very surprised because of the way she's been "nesting" and packing the kid's bags and hers, and her apprehensions of last week.  

This time she's dilated to 3 cm.  Now that doesn't seem like much, I suppose, but once her babies decide to come 3 cm. can dilate from 4 cm. to 9 in just a few short hours.  So I'm praying for her and her hubby who is with her.  

We got the 3 little ones home to our house, just across town, brought in blankets, stuffed toys, bags mommy had packed and tried to get them settled in quickly.  I was helping them start a video to watch when my husband started listening to the answering machine.

I just heard a couple of words that I'm sure drained the blood from my face, something about someone passing away, and in that split second, I thought it might be my older sister who just had a lumpectomy for cancer.  She lives near Kansas City.

But I was wrong, it was my sister who lives just 30 miles from us, and who I had just talked to recently.  They're placing her time of death sometime Friday or Saturday.  

This is  such a blow--to get the call from her daughter in Las Vegas.  She became concerned when she couldn't reach  her mom by phone or email.  My sister was actually doing quite well, even though she had MS.  Both her daughter and me  nagged at her about wearing a call button because she admitted she was fearful of falling in her home because of MS and dying alone.  

I'm just numb.  All these things happening at once.  And hubby seems to be coming down with a cold.  His colds are not the usual 1 week, 7 days, because it can get complicated with  his allergies and asthma.  

I keep telling myself:  The Lord will not give me more than I can handle...He will not give me more than I can handle.  So, why then, does everything seem to happen at once??  I will trust in Him to get us through the next few days.

Now I must attend to my littlest granddaughter (so far) who is coughing.  I'm not always so good at handling the needs of other because of my disabilities.  He'll not give me more than I can handle...amen & Amen.  This too shall pass.  

My beautiful granddaughter, April, who will be two on April 27

Very frustrated right now!

I wrote a post but when I went to post it, it would not publish as I had written it.  If I can't get this to work, I plan on abandoning blogspot and either using another program than blogspot or post only on facebook!  

Remember the Reason

Christmas isn't about buying the right gift.  It's not all about sending cards, baking, eating, and hoping we'll get our wishes fulfilled.

Christmas is accepting the gift that God gave us--a Babe in a manger, His only Son, Jesus, the Christ.  Like Mary, we ponder what this gift means to each and everyone of us.

The world was, and is, in great darkness.  Will we see and accept that light of great joy into our lives?  Will we surrender to,  and reflect, the light for others to see Him in who we are and what we do?

Thanks be to God.   We have the Word with eye-witness accounts to give us hope and wings of faith to free us from the burden of our, and the world's, sins.  What more could we ask?

The world didn't know what was needed, but God did.  Out of love for humankind, He generously gave us what we need.  Will we unwrap the gift in awe and wonder?  Will we retain the gift or get bored with it and lay it down after a few days?

Enjoy the season with the music, the giving and receiving of earthly gifts.  But when all that is over, Remember the Reason.