Overwhelmed

I am writing this on Thursday evening, at the time we had expected we would be flying over the Atlantic Ocean, beginning our big Moldovan journey.  Those plans came to a screeching halt yesterday morning, though, and we are, instead, still home... though I'm realizing the journey has already begun.

Yesterday, we suddenly had to call the paramedics for one of our children, and experienced a scary episode we had hoped we never would have to again.  All kinds of questions started swirling about the health of this child, and we realized we needed to visit a specialist, if not the ER.  So, we realized our trip must be postponed, and called the airline to begin the (what turned out to be a very long, complicated) process of re-booking our tickets.

Today I have spent a large portion of the day in tears.  But every time someone asks me why I'm crying, I realize it's because I'm just overwhelmed by Love.  Yes, our plans are all messed up and things are confusing, but it the midst of it all, I have been so grateful-- overwhelmed, truly -- for so much...

... For the way God allowed the timing of this medical situation to be yesterday, and not even 36 hours later... or any time in the next 7 months, when we would have really freaked out.  It is oh-so-clear that His hand is in all of this.
... For the way our families have all immediately called, emailed, offered to help in so many ways.  Such generosity and compassion...
... For the way our friends have also started pouring out to us, coming over to pray with us, calling, offering to bring us meals
... For friends even far away who immediately began to pray for us
... For the elders of the church who quickly arranged to come over and pray for our child's healing, and provide comfort to us
... For the access we have here to paramedics, specialists, and our pediatrician -- which we would not have days from now
... For our children who have interacted with each other in precious ways
... For watching our sick child gain strength, and participate with joy in the life of our family
... For hearing the specialist say it might not be as big of a deal as we thought, health-wise
... For hearing Rayna say yesterday, "Ok, here's the situation:  We're all going to make a circle, the whole family, and we're going pray."  And then we did.
... For realizing that even though we were supposed to be out of town by now, our pantry and freezer and fridge had plenty of items for us to continue eating for the next few days.  I know God planned this out well for us!
... For the fact that the couple renting our house here were not planning on moving in until next Thursday -- the day we've now switched our flights to
... For the airline finally coming back and saying they would allow us to refund our non-refundable tickets  (they're still saying we need to pay an exorbitant amount to change those tickets, but we're going to appeal that tomorrow)

Some of my tears today have also been caused by my sadness and fear for my child's health... and those feelings make me remember how broken how world is, and make me long more for the Home of Heaven.  So, I am thankful even for the sad situation, I guess.

As our plans for Moldova took shape over the last few months, we talked about how we really desired to find Joy in the journey.  The journey has begun, and even though this isn't the first step I would have chosen, I see that underlying even the hard times, there is a soft joy to be found in the pouring out of Love.  We've been overwhelmed by that love today.