The Day Satan Tried to Take Me Down.....and failed!

So Thursday was the day that Satan tried to take me down. Want to hear about it? Nothing extraordinary was taking place that day except my oldest daughter needed to have three impacted wisdom teeth extracted. All was going beautifully... in fact, the sky was blue and the temperature outside was perfect. Her teeth came out fine and I drove her home to get her into bed and begin to administer a little TLC for a couple of days. It was as I walked through the door that things took a turn for the worst. I entered and my kids said, "Call Terra at AWAA, she needs to talk to you about Baby M!" My heart began to pound! I knew that unless there was trouble she would not call me on only one of my two girls in Ethiopia. I got Natalie in bed and had a pit in my stomach. I called AWAA as soon as possible and immediately Terra picked up the phone. Another sign of urgency. I can not tell you specifics on the conversation, but I can tell you that I got off the phone and thought doom and gloom in regards to Baby M's health. Of course my husband was on a business trip and would only be able to console me over the phone. I told the older kids that Baby M was sick, but since I did not have all the details at this point I did not want to alarm anyone so I just kept in my real feelings of dread to myself. In the mean time my mother who lives a few houses down the road is recovering from a neck injury. She was on heavy pain medication. My brother who had been visiting her that day called me very concerned and said he had just left Mom and Dad's house and had called as he was going home just to check on them one more time. Dad had told him that Mom had fallen down and he could not get her up. Since my brother was now stuck in traffic he wanted me to go and see what was going on. I was very scared not knowing what I would find. When I got there she was on the ground next to her bed and her breathing was very shallow. Since she had a neck injury my dad and I did not want to move her so I had to call 911 for the first time in my life(and I hope the last). My sweet mother was taken away in an ambulance with my dad in attendance. I needed to get back home to all the kids so my brother met them up at the hospital. I felt so small and inadequate... like there should have been two of me to take care of everyone. I walked back down to my house sort of stunned. But was the attack over??? NOOOO! Because when I got home the door had been left opened and my new little kitten and my 8 month old Newfie puppy were gone!! O.K. at this point it became obvious that this was a major spiritual attack. All I was thinking was: my oldest daughter is sick, my youngest daughter is around the world and sick and I can not hold her, and my mother is maybe critically ill. Then to boot I loose my animals and my husband is gone. Yet the funny thing was that I had a strange sense of calm and strength. Satan was trying to rock my world yet God gave me all the tools to tackle each crisis as it came up. That night I was on the phone with my brother every half hour checking on the situation in the ER all the while taking my kids to and from VBS(so their world seemed normal), getting dinner, tending to ice packs and anti-inflammatories and trying to get more information on Baby M's situation. It was a tough day and night to say the least, but since I am not controlled by randomness I was not defeated. I have a God who is bigger then illness or trauma or chaos. My God brings peace, clarity and a sense of calm in a storm.

So now it is three days later and you want to know how it all came out right? Well, Natalie is swollen. but is fine and recovering. Baby M was not as sick as we had originally thought. There had been a miscommunication. One of our AWAA families was able to confirm this since she was in Ethiopia last week picking up her daughter. She e-mailed me dozens of beautiful photos of Baby M as proof that she is, "healthy as a horse!" My mother fell, not due to her neck injury, but because we found out she was actually allergic to the pain medication and it was causing weakness and confusion. She ended up with pneumonia due to her shallow breathing, but she is now back home reunited with my dad right down the street where she belongs. My cat was actually sleeping under the computer desk and the dog was roaming around having a great time but came back wagging her tail behind her. My husband came home after everything was back in place and squared away. I guess this was something God wanted me to learn...With him I am tougher than I think and with him I do not have to fear at all. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways be mindful of him and he will make straight your paths. "