Bumps, Bruises, Blessings

Ever since the day we took my mom down to sunny Florida it has been one thing after another! First, we picked my brother up from the airport on November 5-which also happens to be my birthday! 

It was wonderful having him home after not seeing him for over 25 months! Then that Saturday, November 9, my mom, brother, Mike and I began our journey south!

 

Two hours into the trip, one of the vehicles we were taking down decided it didn’t want to continue the rest of the way with us. So we had to grab some luggage and boxes and move them around and make space in the other vehicle so the three of us could drive down in one car. We now had no clue what my mom was moving down with as we had to leave most of her stuff with the broken down car, we had no idea what was wrong with the other car-just that it wasn’t going anywhere-and Mike and I now had no way to get home-the truck was our ticket back.

We made it down to Georgia the next day and were able to spend a relaxing and refreshing time with some of our family-who we hadn’t seen in years! It was a nice and much needed break in our trip! The next day we drove the rest of the way to Florida! When we arrived, we quickly unpacked everything and then went to the airport to pick up my sister-who was flying down from PA. At last we were able to get some more-much needed rest!

Haven't seen my cousin in well over 5-6 years!

Now it may have seemed like the one car breaking down was a bad thing-and it was. We had no clue how much money it would cost to fix it. But it was a good thing in that I wasn’t feeling so good most of the trip down, so with three of us in one car I didn’t actually have to drive past those first two hours! God knew what was needed!

Then in terms of the truck that was left behind-which is my sister’s truck. It was a hassle to get it back to PA, but because we were all in FL. Our Pastor graciously went down to try and get the truck, but the thing was still being stubborn! It refused to budge! So my sister called our mechanic and it finally worked out where he said he would take care of it all! 

So the truck finally made its way to his shop-actually it arrived the day after we got back from Florida! Then….we’ll jump ahead a little here-last week he gave my sister the bill. We all had a number in our head as to how much it would cost. We had guessed that it was a transmission problem-which we were told was super expensive to fix. So I’m thinking at least $1,000 and my sister was thinking at least $2,000. 

What was the total, including the towing cost????? $300. Yeah, I had that shocked look on my face too when my sister told me. I’m not good with mechanics on cars but there was some kind of box that cracked -which caused the car to not be able to move at all. We were told that even that fix would be almost as expensive as getting the transmission fixed. But God worked it out and once again our mechanic was such a blessing to us!

Okay, now you have to jump back in time to the Florida trip…we left on a Saturday morning and arrived Monday evening in Florida. Thursday morning was the start of a family vacation to Disney! It was our second time going there-at least for us youngsters-and it was the best vacation we’ve had! We also were able to have a mini family reunion with my Aunt and her family-which was so much fun! We were able to relax and have loads of fun riding rides and eating until we were super stuffed! That dining plan really fills you up!

Where we stayed....it was awesome!

Time with family well spent! 

 First place we ate at was Rain Forest Cafe-I recommend it!

My sister recommends their Volcano!!!!! Love the look on her face-had me laughing through the whole trip!

 

 We then headed back to my mom’s place-which is a short hour and a half away from Disney-that Sunday night and tried to come up with ideas on how Mike and I were going to make it back to PA. We finally were able to find a rental car that wasn’t too expensive, but Mike wanted to drive the whole way back without stopping for an overnight rest-which I really can’t do. It would have been hard enough me driving as I still wasn’t feeling the greatest.

My sister decided that instead of flying back she would drive with us, so with that settled we determined to head back to PA Tuesday morning. We spent the rest of Monday at the beach, in the pool and in the jacuzzi!

Yup! He's lovin it!

Well, we get to the rental place, on Tuesday, and there was a hiccup in being able to rent the car. After many calls back and forth we were able to have a friend help us get the car, but we were postponed in leaving by over three hours. We weren’t sure how this was going to work as we were going to drive all night and meet my brother in PA at the drop off spot for the rental. He was then going to take us home and go to work. With the delay, it was going to cause us a challenge with that plan.

But once again God had it worked out! Because we left a few hours later, we were able to have breakfast with my mom and help her feel more settled about her move. We made great time on the road-22 hours never went so fast- and arrived in PA at a perfect time for my brother to still get a good days work in.

We then had Thanksgiving with Mike for the first time since he joined the Air Force. Now usually when he comes home we’ll do a Thanksgiving dinner, but this was the first time it was on the “proper” day! ;)

We then did some shopping on Friday-all four of us together-which was great fun! 

We only had my brother home for a few more days, but we tried to squeeze in as much as we could with him! Including game night with two good friends!

Then this past week-hard to believe only a week has gone by!

What a week this past week has been! It started off with us sending my brother back home to Germany-where he is stationed with the Air Force-on December 2nd. It was also opening day for rifle season in PA-which my youngest brother has been going out to try and get his deer this year.

Then Tuesday, while I was working on bringing wood into the house, my dogs escaped! I had just double checked the door to be sure it was closed, but one of them went and scratched at the door and it opened-out they ran! I was screaming at them to come back! As its rifle season I hardly even let the dogs out to go potty during the day least some over-zealous hunter shoots and hits one of them. At just that moment two Dodge type trucks were driving by towing these small metal boxes. The dogs were so worked up they ran right up to the road and one of the trucks hit Judah.

God’s hand was with him though a he was hit by the box the one truck was towing. If he’d been hit a moment sooner the truck would have run him down, a moment later and the truck following would have hit him.

I saw Judah roll over on the street right after I heard a clanging noise of the metal box shaking. At first I thought he’d been hit, but he got right up and ran down the driveway. Then I though he must have just slipped. But either way I was going to call my siblings and get him to the vet. You really don’t want to take a chance with a dog and a car!

While I ran to get the phone, Judah made his way up to the front porch and I saw he actually was nicked. The back end where his tail is had no fur and looked like even his skin was rubbed off. There was blood, but I didn’t have time to even look very much as I wanted to hurry and get someone home so they could take us to the vet!

In the end Judah ended up being in surgery for over 3 hours. He had so much gravel on him that most of the day was spent prepping him for surgery. They got as much gravel and tissue as they could and then stitched him up! He had to stay at the vet’s until Saturday, but even when I saw him for the first time, he was much better than I thought.

  Here he is with Rachel-he was very upset while we were driving down to Florida and refused to go back in the house. She had to go talk to him and spend some time with him outside before he decided to go back inside.

He may be shaved, but his skin is still there…in fact, they called it his flap. His spine wasn’t crushed or injured, no internal injuries, no broken bones, his lungs are clear! Overall, he’s doing really well so far!

I’m so grateful God kept him safe! Right now we are trying to get him to rest as much as possible and of course keeping him on his pills to stave off infection or anything else. He’s supposed to go next week for to get his stitches out and I’m hoping that will go alright.

He is draining from his stitches right now, but I was told it’s normal. What I’m really hoping is that when he’s healed he will have no trouble walking or moving around. He’s not the youngest dog and I’m sure an accident like this doesn’t help with the aging process!

So after the thing with Judah, I kept busy at home. With my brother, Mike home I wasn’t able to get too much done with moving the rest of my mom’s stuff into storage and getting things cleaned out and organized in the house. So I’ve been working on getting all of that done. What a lot of work it’s been! I know it will be worth it in the end!

I am looking forward to thing settling down so I can really get to work on my writing and more music. God has been showing me so much and giving me so much to share that I’m overflowing! I try to write when I can, but I’m trusting that He will give me the words when the time is right!

Overall, the last month has had many bumps in the road, but I can clearly see God’s hand through every step, bruise and stumble. He has protected, guided, provided and lifted us up. I’m grateful we have a God like him watching over us!

 Bumps, Bruises and oh so many Blessing!