Do I Trust God With My Kids? You Bet I Do!
I've always trusted God with the safety of my kids when they were away from me, especially far away like on the other side of the state, or the country, or the world. But so much of that trust was conceptual, until last weekend.
Saturday, my youngest son, who is 21, worked a full shift at work and then headed out on a five-hour drive across the state to visit his brother for the first time by himself. He got off a little early with the express intention of getting over the mountain pass before dark, as this was the most intimidating part for him. The day before I had, in my most motherly way possible, gone over with him the signs of highway hypnosis and the ways to avoid it as once you get over the pass there is a three hour stretch of pretty straight highway that can get rather tedious. As much as I would have hoped for a text letting me know he was heading out, I didn't hear anything until his brother called me that evening to let me know that things did not go according to plan. I'll skip the hours of not knowing and the piecing together of information and just give you the story as it was eventually relayed to me.
About three hours into the drive, my son began to feel a little drowsy and felt God prompting him to get off the highway to grab a snack and walk around some. He missed the first possible exit, but when the next opportunity came, he felt a strong compelling to take it, so he did. When he entered the gas station to find something to munch on, his vision began to go dark. He reached for a bag of chips and the lights went out completely. The other people in the gas station heard him call out loudly, "I'm sorry!" as he fell down to the floor and then began having an intense seizure. Someone called 911 and the paramedics came to his aid. They called his brother (he didn't want to worry me) to get his medical history and let him know they were taking him to the hospital for tests. He was pretty banged up from crashing into things while flailing around, but overall ok.
His brother (thankfully) called me to loop me in. I was in a tough spot. You see, with my double vision being extra since my last surgery, I haven't been driving much. I do occasional local trips, but not much of that in the last week and a half since I've been experiencing extreme vertigo. I was certainly in no shape to do a three-hour late-night drive over a mountain pass! I reached out to my network of helpers and landed on my Mom, who came in clutch and was willing to do the last-minute trip, but as she was on her way over to pick me up, my middle son called and begged me to wait until he and his girlfriend made it to the hospital to assess the situation. They were so much closer, and he assured me that he had things under control and would keep me 100% in the loop. I hated the idea of sitting at home and waiting for information, but I had to admit that he was right.
Where was my faithful, ever-ready husband in all this? Why wasn't he dropping everything and flying out the door with me to go to our son's rescue? As always, God has a plan and a sense of humor! My husband was in the mountains on a much-needed break. He was backpacking in a wilderness area without cell signal and with minimal satellite coverage. Thankfully, he has a satellite GPS device that I can send messages to, and he eventually got the news that our son was headed to the hospital. Incidentally, he had decided to cut his trip short due to flooding conditions in the area he was staying and was on his way out of the woods already! But the news caused him to double-time it, for which he will likely pay for a few days. I think God orchestrated all this on purpose because He wanted our middle son to handle things and us to take a back seat on this one. That's not easy for us and let me tell you there was some processing that took place in our house this weekend!
Our middle son made it to the hospital right on time as predicted by Google and as promised he called me as soon as he could get back into the room with his brother. He got off the phone briefly to conference with the nurse and doctor and then called me back to relay the information that his CT scan had come back clean, but the blood test had confirmed that he had, indeed, had a seizure. He shared that both the paramedics and the hospital staff had commented that my son was the most polite, well-mannered seizure patient they had ever seen! Evidently, seizures are usually precluded and followed by violent, surly behavior but he had been kind and thoughtful - even saying, "I'm sorry," as he fell down!
He was discharged shortly after they got there and they rode back to the gas station where his car was parked, and they drove it back to their apartment. Having had a seizure, the doctor at the hospital told him he is forbidden from driving for six months, or whenever a neurologist clears him, whichever comes first. Since he is a mechanic, this could have serious repercussions on his job. For a while after he gets home, he will also have to have someone around whenever he bathes, not in the bathroom with him of course just in the house in case he has another seizure. He's already got a doctor's appointment lined up for later this week and we're hoping he will be able to get in to see a neurologist soon.
I know you're all heartbroken over him not getting the chips he stopped into the gas station for, but worry no longer. His brother took care of that!
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