Sunday, October 26, 2008

Stirred but not Shaken

I know that my foundation is Jesus Christ the Lord and for that reason can not be shaken or broken or destroyed. My very human emotions can be stirred around and that is exactly what this week has been. I am not sure why the struggles of life seem to fall at once, but I am not sorry to mark this last week off the calendar and move forward.

Despite the best care we could give the dog, the tissue around her knee joint did not heal correctly and we had to make the decision to amputate her leg. Any other option would leave her with a lifetime struggle with some kind of pain and this seemed the best option to allow her to get on with living the good dog's life. I know, some of you are saying these people are animal lunatics, but compared to some of my family we are really pretty sane.

More upsetting than the dog, a long time employee of B's family business committed suicide after a long battle with cancer. I can not imagine the things this poor man has endured during this battle, but this seemed the ultimate cruel ending.

On Wednesday, my little world got stirred even more. I was headed to school shortly before one o'clock to pick up the girls and then take all four kids to get their flu shots. Afterwards, I planned to drop B and H back off at school and then take J and L to speech therapy at WKU. I turned onto Nashville Rd to see it blocked with police cars that surrounded south campus and saw the SWAT team in bullet proof vests and sharp shooters draped across cars. My heart turned over. My children's school sits between south and central campus of WKU. The entire campus as well as our school had been put under lock down. I could hear the outdoor warning sirens going off on campus. The radio was reporting potential gunshots and telling students on campus to take cover immediately. I am not a WKU alumnus, but the longer I have lived in the area, the more attached I have become. The proximity of the university to my children's school has provided them with many opportunities and resources. Most recently, J and L have been able to receive 2 hours each of speech therapy each week through the Clinical Education Complex. This is a huge help to us. Most importantly, our beloved babysitter is a student at WKU. Before I could help myself, I began to cry. This simply was not supposed to happen in my town. I did not feel better till Brian had received word from our babysitter that she was locked in at the student center and was fine.

I am trying to take comfort in God's message... " in this world you will have troubles, but I have overcome the world." Aren't you glad that as Christians we can always look to a brighter tomorrow?

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